Venia por Malum: Final Fantasy Tactics
by Illyria's Acolyte
Summary: The title means 'forgiveness for evil'. After the battle with Altima, Ramza and the others meet an unexpected ally who wants them to get back as badly as he wants himself to. Rated for language, violence, and some adult situations.
1. Prologue

Ramza Beoulve rested his sword at his side after his last attack which crippled Altima and left her powerless. He lay the Ragnarok and the Excalibur in their sheathes for what he hoped was the last time. He looked back at Ophelia, garbed in the black and green robes of a summoner, Orlandu, with his purple armor and tannish cape, and the two ex-Shrine Knights, Meliadoul and Beowulf, both clad in a rich, bright green. Each of them also sheathed their weapons. The Arch Angel Altima looked pale.

"No," she said softly. "No... This can't be... You're the descendant of the one who killed me before. No...I won't be beaten... I will not be beaten..." With wild eyes she scanned the ship's exterior. Her eyes fell on Alma. As she gathered all her energy for one final attack, the others ran onto the scene with a very sickly looking Kletian in tow.

"Ramza!" Agrias yelled as she came running up to him. "Ramza, quickly. We have to get out of here. Kletian said he knows a way."

"But Rofel said-"

"You and I both know that Rofel was deranged," Meliadoul said, cutting Ramza off. "None of the other Shrine Knights liked him from the start. But, he was an old friend of Father's, and he was strong, so he was in."

"Don't talk about Rofel that way," Kletian snapped. "He was a great man, and my mentor. He saved my life once."

"Alright, that's nice, but you have to show-" Ramza then noticed Altima's attack, but it was almost too late. "Alma no!" He ran towards her as the attack fired.

"Cyclops, take the blow!" The giant Cyclops that appears as a summon floated in front of the attack just as it would have hit Alma.

"Phew," Ophelia said. "That was close."

"I will not be denied my victory," Altima screamed.

"Pipe down," Kletian commented, obviously annoyed. He charged up his energy and cast a powerful spell on Altima. Flare. It hit her like a ton of bricks. A ton of burning bricks.

"More… power…" She glowed, and colored light began to swirl around her. Then she exploded, turning the ship to dust. Ramza and the others were blown away by the blast. Each of them were knocked unconscious and mostly thrown individually into the expanse of time, each with a Zodiac Stone. Ramza and Alma were left with Virgo, Meliadoul was left with Sagittarius, Rafa and Malak were left with Scorpio, Mustadio with Taurus, Worker 8 and the Byblos with Aquarius, Reis and Beowulf with Cancer, Orlandu with Libra, Ophelia with Serpentarius, Masahiro and Cloud with Capricorn, Agrias with Pisces, Kylie with Gemini, Strawberry with Aries, Kletian with Leo. And also in each of them, a spirit to guide them back to Ivalice.


	2. Chapter 1: The Byblos

Master. That's what he called him. That's what all of them called him. The Apandas and the Byblos. They idolized Elibidis, even though they knew he was a little off in the head. He went a little crazy after being confined in Deep Dungeon for improper conduct during the battle to recapture Riovones Castle. He was caught with a young female priest in a rather compromising position. He was torturing her to death, but leaving her on the edge just long enough to let her still feel the pain. All the corruption of the magic had gotten to him. He had gone completely insane with power. King Valowa had to confine him to Deep Dungeon because he was too dangerous.

But the Byblos worked for him anyway, because he was the only human the Byblos had ever seen, and the Apanda lore foretold that a human would come to lead them all to the Promised Land. Unfortunately, Elibidis was unstable, and so was that prophecy. One by one, the Apandas pissed off Elibidis, and one by one, he turned them into stone. Then, the Byblos were the only one left, so it was him that excavated Serpentarius.

"Finally," Elibidis said after ripping the stone out of the Byblos' hands. "The last Zodiac Stone. Serpentarius."

The Byblos growled. That's not proper etiquette for a savior. The Byblos launched himself at Elibidis, growling. Elibidis held up his wrinkled old hand and pointed a gnarly finger at the creature.

"Contradict me now and die, foolish monster," Elibidis said quietly but authoritatively, but his voice quickly escalated. "Serpentarius is mine! And no one else's!"

The Byblos growled. "I will fight you with every fiber of my being," it cried in its own language. "You will feel the full force of my Byblos powers."

Elibidis stretched out his palm and fired a blast of energy at him. It knocked the Byblos off the hill it was standing on and onto an adjacent platform at least fifteen feet lower. It got back up, ready for another round.

Just then, six people entered. Five of them the Byblos vaguely recognized. One, an old man clad in purple armor and a tannish cape, entered holding a Rune Blade. A blonde woman, also clad in armor and carrying a Rune Blade, had two braids in her hair. One was clad in golden armor covered in a hooded, green cape, the traditional armor of a Shrine Knight. Another was in a traditional summoner's robes, including the Robe of Lords, hidden by Elibidis deep on the dungeons deepest floors. The other was a young man with a strand of hair sticking straight out of the top of his head.

The sixth person, however, was a complete stranger that the young Byblos had no memory of at all. She appeared sitting on a flat stalactite with her legs crossed. She had silver armor all over her body. Silver greaves, silver boots, silver breastplate, silver gauntlets, the works. The package was completed by a silver sword. The young woman had short brown hair, and a big smirk on her child-like face.

"Guess what?" The woman chuckled. Her voice chimed off the cavern walls like silver clanging against the ground. "I know you." Suddenly the woman disappeared. "I've known you since you were an itty bitty baby Apanda." She made a reference to the fact that he was born an Apanda and evolved over thousands of years. Her voice resounded behind him now. He turned around, and there she was.

"Who are you?" He asked. "And how do you know how to speak Apandian?"

"I used to be an Apanda," the young woman said. "My name was Reirieties. Then I became a human. By a prophecy, which also said I would someday come back and save my people from oppression. I was the human that would come to save the Apandas from Hell, not Elibidis or even Ramza  
Beoulve."

The Byblos' memory came rushing back to him. He recognized the five other people, even though he did not know them very well. Agrias Oaks, Cidolfas Orlandu, Beowulf Kadmas, Ophelia Kaishou, and, of course, Ramza Beoulve. The battle between the great wizard and the Byblos' five companions stopped freeze frame instantly.

"My name is Joan," the brunette woman said. "And I'm dead. It is my charge to bring you back to your homeland of Ivalice. Mostly because the world needs your unique talents, and the talents of our friends the humans, to save the entire world from damnation. But also slightly because it's my only ticket out of limbo."

"But first things first," Joan said, and reappeared in the place of Elibidis. "You have some serious issues to take care of. Betrayal issues."

"Yes," replied the Byblos. "The betrayal of Elibidis."

She winked at him. "We'll see." She cocked her head to the right. "Follow me."

The scene changed instantly to Dorter Trade City. A thief was talking to a handsome, brunette lancer. Behind him stood a blonde priest, a surly knight, a thin, female ninja, a male geomancer, and a young bard.

"Oh I remember them," the Byblos remarked. "The lancer is my old master, Ryan, back when I was an Apanda. And Barsia the priest, Sir Hampsten, Judy the ninja, Little Jon the monk, and… the singer, what was his name?"

"Brian," Joan replied. "Brian Uribo."

"Oh, right," the Byblos replied. "But why-"

"Sh," Joan snapped, putting her index finger to her lips. "I promise if you watch, it'll all be made clear."

The thief held a poorly made knife to Ryan's throat. The lancer pushed the terrible thief back with the butt of his lance, and accidentally dropped the pack he hand strung over his shoulder. A young Apanda fell out and landed painfully on his head.

"That's me," cried the Byblos. "But why don't I remember that?"

"That fall on your head caused you to forget a few things. Like that thief, Jason, who would later save your life when you were attacked by Adramelk, as well as forgetting the other Zodiac Braves. But most importantly, it made you forget your true name."

"I have a name?" The Byblos questioned. Joan nodded. "Then why didn't Ryan tell me that?"

"He didn't know," Joan replied. "He doesn't speak Apandian. Besides, he was never too bright anyway. I don't know what that Judy girl saw in him."

"But enough about that man," Joan appeared in the spot of Jason, the thief. "I want you to remember it, and you do know where it is carved right?"

"Well," the Byblos thought out loud. "Perhaps in the Duguloa Pass. The Apandas used to live by the dozens there. Back when they were a common species, before they were all but wiped out."

"No, you hail from far beyond that time, five centuries beyond that time to be exact," Joan mused. "Perhaps somewhere else. Somewhere, closer to where you were when you met your human."

"Nogias."

"Nogias, the first level of the Deep Dungeon," Joan pointed him in the right direction. She snapped her fingers and they were there. Carved on the wall in the center of the cavern was the phrase 'And the Byblos will be called Pentecireia'.

"Do you recognize it?" Joan asked.

"What do I look like? A translator," snapped the Byblos.

"Sorry, sorry, just asking," Joan said. "Look harder. Deeper. Try and see past the text and read the words that are written."

The Byblos stared. It was a language he was vaguely familiar with for some reason. He recognized a few letters, they were Apandian. It said something like 'And the Bbl wll be alled 'something''.

"Here, let me help," Joan said. "Let me just move this over here." The '' turned into a 'y'.

"The Byblos will be called… something," the Byblos sighed. "I can't make out the last word."

"Starts with a 'P'," she helped. "ends with an 'entecireia'."

"Pentecireia?" asked the Byblos, and Joan nodded.

"Pentecireia," the Byblos said. "I like it."

"Finally," Joan sighed impatiently. "You worked through your betrayal issues."

"My what?" Pentecireia questioned. "But I thought that-"

"You betray yourself when you don't know your own name silly," Joan laughed. "Elibidis. As if the cosmos would throw you something that obvious."

Pentecireia shrugged. "Okay, so now what?"

Joan smiled, and then everything glowed white.

A/N: I promise the chapters will get more interesting once I get into the more interesting characters (i.e. the characters I actually like). Next is another character that really doesn't matter, Worker 8.

TRIVIA

Joan is obviously a reference to the French Saint Joan of Arc, but I patterned her look after the Yu-Gi-Oh card St. Joan.

Pentecireia has the word "pent" in it which is Latin for "five". This may become important later. It's also the number of non-guests you can have in battle, and his age(500 that is).

Ophelia's last name is Japanese for "resourceful" because she's able to become any job class she wants (and she's mastered at most of them too). I spent way too much time on this game.


	3. Chapter 2: Worker 8

Destruction. He reveled in it. He loved to experience it. Death was the only thing he could offer these poor, unfortunate souls. The sweet release of death. No gift could be more precious. He and his companion were the instruments of death.

Their master, Horacio Bunanza, was their creator and their best friend. He was an intelligent young man of about twenty-five years of age. No one was more revered in their small town of Goug. He wasn't really a bad man, but Bart Rudvich had forced him into attacking random towns all over the world. None of their armies could stand against the destructive power of Worker 8 and Worker 7-new. The original Worker 7 had been destroyed by a pesky Beoulve and his companions. His name might have been Balbanes. Even they could barely stand up to it's power though. Never before had creatures of their caliber been allowed to walk the earth. And Horacio Bunanza was on the verge of mass production of these terrible machines of death.

"I trust production is going well Horacio?" Rudvich said from the shadows of Bunanza's huge underground laboratory.

"Huh?" Poor nervous Bunanza jumped about a foot every time Rudvich spoke.

"I asked you how production was going you slimy maggot," Rudvich spat venomously.

"Well, production was going very well," Bunanza replied.

"Was?" Rudvich raised a graying eyebrow.

"Well, yes," Bunanza continued. "We were building them, and they came out fine. But then we ran into a small problem along the way. We found that after five minutes, the duplicates just shut down. I think the reason it didn't happen with the original Workers was that they were infused with the power of a Holy Stone. So we need to equip one of them with another, or find an equally powerful energy source."

"Like this?" Rudvich held up the Zodiac Stone Taurus.

"W-where…"

"From your son. Besrodio."

"If you touched one hair on his head, I'll-"

"You'll what? Bore me to death with another one of your _theories_," Rudvich chuckled evilly. "If you don't make another of them, I'll kill him."

"No! Please!" Horacio said. "Don't hurt my son."

"So make another one," Rudvich said, maddeningly calm. He was a very composed man who rarely lost his temper.

"Well, Worker 6 is under construction right now," Horacio said. "I'll go have them fix the power circuit to draw power from this. Just give me the Holy Stone."

"No. Take me with you."

"Fine then," Horacio replied. He and Rudvich walked away. Worker 8, or the alias he usually went by, had seen all of this unfold before his optical sensors. His memory bank recalled this scene as he had been tapped into the security cameras at the time. Nothing like that had been made since because Horacio was the only one who could make such a machine. And everyone knows what happens to those who stand up to Bart Rudvich.

The data files continued, helping Worker 8 to remember more about Bart Rudvich. In the public's eyes, Bart Co. was just another shipping corporation, renown not withstanding. Of course, the people liked it because of it's good PR and the heavy donations it made to orphanages and other charitable causes. But deep under all that, Bart Co. was just another piracy business, smuggling opium and illegal weapons for Rudvich and his troops to use. The were nothing more than a criminal outfit.

But the real scandal Bart Co. was involved in had nothing to do with that. Horacio had accidentally tapped Worker 8 into the Bart Co. computer mainframe that Horacio had set up. He saw a habitual appointment for Rudvich with the resident priest, Onoti, every Thursday night at midnight. He mentioned this to Horacio, and he had followed the two deep into the Zigolis Swamp. There he saw the priest hold a small animal over his head, break it's neck, and feed it's blood to Rudvich. This deeply disturbed Horacio, and with good reason, so he took a month or two off and did some researching with Simon at the libraries of Orbonne. It turned out that Bart Rudvich had supposedly died dozens of years ago from consequences related to the Holy Stones. That got Horacio thinking, perhaps Rudvich was trying to make himself live forever. Of course Horacio couldn't let this secret be swept under the rug, so he decided to confront Rudvich by himself.

"And guess how that turned out," Horacio's voice came from behind Worker 8. The robot turned around as quickly as he could, and saw the feeble form of his old master as he remembered him. Long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, soft, blue eyes, engineer's clothing, and a gun holster on his right hip. "I was killed by Rudvich, and all mentions of me and my work were erased. You were deactivated, and thrown into the Bugross (A/N: Forgot how to spell that. Can anyone help?) Sea. Your cousin was sent to guard the Nelveska Temple, and the other prototypes were disassembled and put into other projects. All my hard work. I just wanted to see one of my children in action."

"Your offspring Besrodio is now fifty one years old. A widower with a single son, he has worked on several other projects, including myself and an inter-dimensional mobile. He has-"

"I know all that stuff," Horacio said. "God lets me watch over the people I love. I'm talking about my other children."

"Me?" Horacio nodded. "I have plenty of optical data-"

"I don't want optical data," Horacio said, putting up his hands. "Fight me. Come on, don't be scared. Disobey your primary objective and hit me."

"But I am just a pile of circuits," Worker 8 said. "That was the first thing you told me. I cannot disobey my primary objective and harm the one who created me. I can never rise above my programming. I have limits."

"So break them," Horacio declared simply. "Well that and my nose."

"I can't."

"You must."

"No," Worker 8 yelled as his brain sparked. "I will NOT hurt you."

"Good," Horacio said. "You're such a good, little mindless robot. And if you don't hit me right now, that's all you'll ever be. A mindless, soulless, robot, easily controlled, easily manipulated, and eventually the enemy will get a hold of you and you will hurt the people you care about. It happened to Worker 7-new, and it WILL happen to you. SO HIT ME!"

"Shut up!" Worker 8 screamed as a giant spark came from his cranial area. He lifted a giant hand up and swung it at the young engineer. His whole body shattered, and he disappeared.

"Good," his voice floated from Worker 8's chest. The robot looked down at his chest, and felt Horacio emanating from it. He wasn't quite sure how he knew, but his creator was with him.

"Now, for the trip back to conventional reality," his voice resonated throughout the small factory. The entire room turned white.

A/N: Alright, there are a few things I'd like to clear up here and now so it doesn't confuse the hell out of anyone else like it did the first poor souls to review this fic.

One: The original characters. Masahiro, Ophelia, Strawberry, and Kylie. They are varied, unique characters who have distinct personalities that will be dealt with during their respective chapters. That is including job class, appearance, and other important tidbits.

Two: Kletian. He never really struck me as evil, just misguided. Like most of the Shrine Knights. But more on them later. Possibly in a separate story. Anyway, he is a special case. Vormav is either dead or he sold his soul to Lucavi, which I don't believe. Rofel sold his soul to Lucavi and probably died. Balk sold his soul and definitely died. Izlude was killed by Hashmalum. Meliadoul joins your team. Weigraf is driven to his own self-destruction by vengeance. Beowulf quit because he was all ticked off at Buremonda. Kletian is the only one who still has his soul, is alive, didn't quit, and has a conscience. He won't exactly be the president of the Ramza Beoulve Fan Club, and he won't like any of the others, except his fellow Shrine Knights, Mel and Beowulf. He'll be detached, but somehow always connected to the main events of the story, like Yu-Gi-Oh's Seto Kaiba.

Anyway, I hope that clears up a few things. I hate Worker 8 and couldn't really think of something for him, so this was kind of a short chapter. But next is Cloud Strife, and then we're into the other, slightly more important characters.


	4. Chapter 3: Cloud Strife

A huge, urban expanse lay before him as he looked out the train window. His companion, a large black man with a crew cut and a machine gun mechanically attached to his arm, sat next to him, brooding.

'Probably worried about Marlene,' the spiky-haired blonde thought to himself. His other three companions sat close by, but they would get off sooner than he and his gun-armed escort would. Who was he kidding? The young man didn't need an escort. He was infused with Mako. He was once a part of SOLDIER, or at least he seemed to remember he was. His memory hadn't been what it was since that accident in his hometown at the Mako Reactor.

His thoughts drifted back to the people who had hired him, seeing as how he was now a mercenary. There was the chubby but kind young man by the name of Wedge, and the stoic, charming pretty-boy Biggs. And then there was Jessie. He liked her from the moment he laid eyes on her. She had dark red hair that looked almost brown tied back into so loose a ponytail that it looked like she slept with her hair that way. She wore a rather loose, camouflage vest with matching pants over a blue t-shirt. Why, Cloud couldn't remember. She told him once, but he forgot. Something about completing the outfit. She had the most beautiful smile. It could literally light up a room. Cloud found himself very attracted to this young lady, and she was very smitten with him too.

Then there was his other traveling buddy: Tifa Lockhart. His closest childhood friend. Or at least that's how he remembered it. She was a rare beauty. Her wild, chestnut hair cascaded down her back into a ponytail that was loosely bound by a small, tan ring. There was always a lock of it in her face. Her boots covered not only her delicate feet, but a pair of wool socks that Cloud gave her for her fifth birthday. Tifa was a bartender, and as such, she had to drag in paying customers. He noticed on more than one occasion that she was quite a well-endowed young woman, and usually wore nothing more than a skin-tight t-shirt and a black leather miniskirt. But appearances can be deceiving. Tifa was by no means the slut she made herself out to be. She was a kind, sensitive young woman who would do anything to help someone in need.

Cloud interrupted his thoughts and adjusted the metal plate on his aching shoulder.

'Why do I wear this damn thing again?' he chided himself. He fixed it, and looked out the dingy train window. The dirty town of Midgard stretched before him. It was a place corrupted by Shinra, the life force-sucking company that lived under the charade of a simple electric company. Of course, many of them probably had no idea what they were doing to the Planet. They were sucking the life out of them, hence the title 'life force-sucking company'. Never really knew what they were doing. That's why AVALANCHE was here. They were going to destroy the Mako Reactors that were the instrument of the life sucking.

Cloud was suddenly hit with a splitting headache. He had had them as long as he could remember. They were mostly a nuisance, and he had gotten used to them.

"You do know why you have them, yes?" Jessie said. Cloud whipped his head around.

'How can she read my thoughts?' Cloud thought to himself.

"It's one of the perks of being a spirit," Jessie joked. Cloud looked confused. "Yeah, I'm dead. Sorry to drop that bomb on you this way, but, as Biggs always said, I have a tendency to be blunt.

"Like I said, I'm dead. And you will be too soon, if I don't get you outta here quick. I don't know how you got here, but I know that getting you out is my ticket to hop a ride up to Heaven. And, if you're lucky, you get to go home someday."

"You mean…"

"Yes," Jessie nodded. "You can see her again in the Promised Land. Your heroic efforts have not gone completely unnoticed. But you can't go home yet. You still have a job to do. Like I said, I cut a deal with a higher power, and if I get you back in one piece, I get to go to Heaven. Come with me, if you will, and we'll take a trip back into your memory."

"But where and how far-"

He was suddenly in the place where he had said goodbye to her last. Sector 7 Slums. During President Shinra's last desperate attempt to eradicate AVALANCHE, the support beams holding up the Sector above it were destroyed and the entire sector was crushed. He and his friends tried to stop it, but to no avail. Hundreds of people were killed. It was a slum, but that doesn't justify the murders.

"Now, you remember this," Jessie said.

"Yes," Cloud swallowed. "If our base wasn't here…"

"Maybe," Jessie said. "Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered. Just be glad he knew where our base was, or he would have leveled half the city. It wasn't your fault that all those people died, including me."

Cloud looked wistfully at her. He blinked and then closed his eyes. "You always did know me the best out of everybody in AVALANCHE."

"So you know about Tifa," Cloud said off-handedly.

"Oh, honey," Jessie replied. "People in the Lifestream know everything. I've known since the moment I was killed."

"Everything huh?"

"Yeah, so I know about you and that Ancient," Jessie sighed. "It's okay, though, I'll get over it. I was always a hopeless flirt. Don't worry about me."

Cloud had been feeling guilty about that, but he had dozens of other things to feel guilt for that it had been low on the list. He supposed he suppressed it. He hadn't really thought about her before much.

"I know, I know," Jessie said. "You didn't love me, it's alright. Say it."

"You're right," Cloud said. "But if I had known you better-"

"And if Aeris wasn't in the picture."

"Yes," Cloud said. "But I might have loved you. If we had had the chance."

"I guess we'll never know now," Jessie said softly as she disappeared. "But that's one issue you'll probably never get over…"

Cloud saw a blinding flash of light.

TRIVIA

Most of this chapter is a reference to FF7, one of the greatest games ever created. But you probably already knew that.

An interesting side note: Cloud doesn't get headaches (at least none that I can remember) in Seven, but he claims to have them in Tactics.

Not many references, mostly Seven stuff. Next is Reis. Her's is a little weird so bear with me for a few more chapters and then we start the originals.


	5. Chapter 4: Reis Kadmas

Reis Dular opened her left eye cautiously and looked around to make sure she was alright. Then, she determined it was and opened the other eye. She got up and sauntered around a bit, until she realized that this was her old hideout underneath Goland Coal City back when she was a dragon. The dingy walls, candlelit hallways, and dirty floors didn't bother her much when she had scales and claws and giant teeth but-

'Wait,' she ran her tongue over her teeth. Huge. With two fangs bigger than the rest. Hastily, she spun around, looking at herself. Purple scales covered her entire four-legged body, a large purple tail protruded from her hind side, claws on her hands and feet, well she supposed they were all feet now, and scaly ears. She had the full dragon package.

"Finally," came a gravelly voice from her left. The Holy Dragon spun around and looked at the face of an old adversary. "It's about time."

"Sinogue," the Dragon growled. "I thought we killed you."

"Yes, your little human boy toy took care of that," Sinogue snarled. The ancient Archaic Demon stepped from the shadows and waved one of his blood red claws. "He was far too… human for me."

"Well, we never would have worked out either," the Dragon growled. "You were far too… demon for me."

"Ah, maybe I was before," Sinogue smirked. "But now, you're as much a demon as me. That human body you had was so disgusting. All thin and fleshy. And the blonde hair…" The demon shivered. "So repulsive."

"I happened to like it," the Holy Dragon retorted.

Sinogue shrugged. "Whatever. This isn't about your nauseating human form anyway. This is about saving all forms of existence from some unknown face who's goals are way too evil even for me. But in order to do that, we need to get you the hell out of here."

The room disappeared. Suddenly, they were standing in the middle of a foreign town. The houses were poorly constructed, and people in foreign dress were running around all over the place. Two dark skinned children, presumably twins, were chasing a dog. Then, she didn't know it, but now she presumed that these children were Rafa and Malak Galthana.

"Where is this place?" the Dragon asked, but Sinogue just put a claw to his lips and nodded in the direction of one of the houses. A dark skinned woman clutching a baby in her arms for dear life was running out of it, She wore a red headband covered by a white head piece, baggy off-white pants, an off-white shirt, and blue shoes with a curl at the end of them.

"Dragon!" she yelled. "Dragon attack! Marik, Marik, where are you?"

"Here Ishizu," her husband yelled. "I'm over here."

"Oh thank Ajora I found you in time," the woman said, out of breath. "Malak, hold onto your sister for me." The Holy Dragon was right, one of the children chasing the dog came over and held the child the woman carried. Malak couldn't have been more than eleven or twelve. He and his sister ran to a safe location.

"Are you ready honey?" the man said.

"Of course," the woman replied. "Let's kick this thing's ass."

The creature that sauntered out from behind the house greatly disturbed the Holy Dragon.

"That's me," she thought out loud.

"Yup," Sinogue replied. "You attacked this village. Fortunately, that couple did more damage than you did."

"Marik and Ishizu Galthana," the Holy Dragon stated, and Sinogue nodded. "So I didn't really do anything evil?"

"You ate a couple of chickens," Sinogue shrugged. "You're no Darth Vader, but it's a start."

"Do Rafa and Malak know that-" the Dragon started until she was shushed by Sinogue."

"This is where it gets good."

The dragon roared and shot out a jet of sky blue flame at the couple. The wife dodged to the left, and the husband to the right. The husband ran a distraction for, to the Holy Dragon's discreet dismay, the seemingly dim-witted dragon while his wife charged up a spell and muttered something about the 'power of the wind'. As the husband was running, he tripped over a discarded Oak Staff, and the dragon loomed over him, charging up another jet of blue fire. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the wife yelled "Diamond Sword!" at the top of her lungs, and a symbol appeared above the dragon and a mini tornado swirled around it. Disoriented, the dragon shot fire at the whirlwind around it, and that gave the couple time to arm themselves. Both grabbed a rose colored sword covered in magic runes and a ring with a blue glow emanating from it. Then, they bowed their heads and closed their eyes and began to chant. As the wind around the dragon dissipated, it slunk towards the couple, but they only chanted faster. Suddenly, the sky opened up, and everyone, including the Holy Dragon, stared at the clouds separating and the light shining through. Then, Holy energy swirled around the dragon, and white streams of Holy came up from underneath it, piercing its armor-like skin. It fell dead in seconds. The Holy Dragon was horrified. Everyone came up to the couple and began to congratulate the couple and bring them, but Rafa came up to the dead dragon and stooped sown to it.

"Are you okay?" the child asked. The dragon didn't move, and young Rafa cocked her head sideways. "Why did you attack us? Or were you just hungry? You don't look so mean. Mommy and Daddy hurt you a lot, didn't they? I wish you didn't die."

The Aquarius Stone that hung around the dragon's neck glowed a blue light, and the healing power of the Waterbearer flowed through the body of the dragon. It lifted its head groggily, and looked through half opened eyes. The young child was slightly startled, but she smiled at the dragon as it got up and sauntered off into the woods, miraculously avoiding the eyes of the girl's brother and parents.

"So, Rafa saved my life?" The Dragon was stunned and amazed.

"Yup," Sinogue said. "And you thought your years as dragon were totally bad. Not a friend in the world. And you stayed away from the one person who could help you. You ignored him. Believe me, helping you is the last thing I want to do, but I've been promised passage into Heaven, which is a golden deal for a demon. I promised to play nice with all the stiffs up in the sky and to get you out of limbo, and I get out of Altima's realm."

"Altima runs hell?" Reis asked. "Well, that seems appropriate."

"No, Altima runs the demon dimension," Sinogue mentioned. "A lot of people make that mistake."

"Listen to us," the Dragon said. "We're talking. Like a couple of old friends."

"We're not friends," Sinogue said. "But this is a start." He waved a claw and Reis felt like she lost a couple hundred pounds. She put her hands to her head. Hair. And hands, feet, teeth instead of fangs. The scene between Rafa and the dragon disappeared.

"Sinogue, I don't know what to say," Reis said, hands still roving her body making sure she didn't have any scales left over.

"Hey," Sinogue snapped. "Don't get all friendly with me. I can't stand it. Makes me all queasy."

"Goodbye," Reis said, and was blinded by a flash of white light.

A/N: I kinda like Reis, and I felt the four words that she said in the game (Beowulf I missed you, that was it) led her to be WAY underplayed. Of all the characters, even Kanbabrif had more lines. Who's he? Most people don't know! (he's one of Goltana's aids, he was present when Delita killed Gelwen) Anyway, I'm playing up her and Beowulf and all the other characters I thought the game didn't do justice. Well, all the ones that are still alive anyway. And more depth on the rest of the characters. And of course more trivia. Next is Reis's love, Beowulf, and some history of their past together.


	6. Chapter 5: Beowulf Kadmas

Beowulf jumped to the right, narrowly avoiding a sideways slash from Rofel's Save the Queen. He brought his own sword, Hrunting (A/N: Not a Tactics weapon, but wouldn't that be cool?), up to strike a blow to his armored shoulder, knocking him down to the ground. He put his sword to Rofel's throat.

"Yield," Beowulf said, out of breath. "I have won."

"You are a promising student Beowulf," Rofel said, equally winded. "One of the best sparring partners I have had since I was learning from Vormav. That may be enough to push you over the edge and get you that spot in the Shrine Knights."

Beowulf removed his sword from Rofel's throat and extended his hand to help him up. Rofel took it and Beowulf pulled him up. Rofel shook his hand when he was standing.

"Good match," he said. "All right losers! Line up for roll call!"

All the potential candidates to fill the position in the Shrine Knights opened up by Jorge Zanuba's untimely demise at the hands of a dangerous assassin. Beowulf quickly scanned the line for who he considered to be the most beautiful candidate for the spot: Reis Dular. The Dulars were a prominent trader family in Lesalia. Their daughter Reis had considerable talent as a mage, so they sent her to Gariland. Beowulf and his best friend Buremonda trained alongside her for years. And now all three were in line to be the newest Shrine Knight.

The potential candidates lined up. First in line there was himself, dressed in his cadet uniform. Each of the cadets were. It was slate gray, and a little more form-fitting than Beowulf would have liked, but Reis looked good in it. Next to him stood his friend Buremonda, wearing a scowl on his aging face. He was only about a year older than Beowulf, but he always looked about twenty years older. He was a little shorter than Beowulf, and he had jet black hair and blue eyes. He was sarcastic, vengeful, and a powerful black mage, even though technically he was a priest.

Next to him was Reis. The love of his life. The first time he had enlisted in Gariland, Reis looked once at him with her deep blue eyes, and he melted. Mushy, he knew, but he had always kind of been a romantic. For the longest time, he thought she was interested in Buremonda, but lately she had been hinting that she liked him. After today's practice, he would talk to her.

Next to her stood Tara Richardson. Tall, blonde, and drop dead gorgeous, her beauty was the one thing that fit her for field work. She specialized in assassination. Her targets were distracted by her good looks, and they usually didn't fight back. (A/N: She's supposed to be like a Barbie doll, I'm doing this on purpose) She was taller and tanner than Beowulf. Beowulf noticed how attractive she was, but Buremonda had not because he was so obsessed with Reis.

Then, there was the fifth and final Temple Knight that was in line for the position in the Shrine Knights: Kletian Drowa. He was a little younger than Beowulf, the same age as Reis. He had dark brown hair, and was an extremely powerful mage. Occasionally, he did use a sword, but he usually used swords in conjunction with them, such as setting the sword on fire. He tended to be more on the sadistic side than Beowulf liked in a friend, but they were in the same training group, so they got along. Kletian was somewhat of a prodigy, graduating top of his class in Gariland.

Five friends all in line for the same job. Each overqualified, each wanted it badly, and each would do anything to get it.

"Okay maggots," Rofel said. "Listen up. Today is the day when you get your results from the fencing tests." He handed Kletian a couple of pieces of parchment. "Kletian, you scored third place. Good for a mage." He moved down the line to Tara. "You, Tara, scored second place." Beowulf let out a sigh of relief. She was the one he was most worried about. Rofel moved to Reis. "Reis, fourth place. You could do better." Reis sighed, and Rofel moved to Buremonda. "Buremonda, I'm embarrassed. Not only did you score last place, but your performance was atrocious. You were wounded ten times." He stepped in front of Beowulf and handed him some more parchment. "Try to duel more like Beowulf, then you may get first place like him." Rofel's eyes glowed with appreciation.

"I was a fool to trust you back then," a voice said from the shadows. It was his old religion teacher, Renault. He wore bright blue robes, which complimented his bleached white hair, even though he was only about thirty. He was never serious, and a very sarcastic teacher. Beowulf looked around and none of the others seemed to notice he was acting strangely.

"What are you saying? You can always trust me," Beowulf said questioningly. "After all, I am your best student."

"Were," Renault said as the other figures disappeared. "Were my best student. Let's look at something that happened a long time ago." Beowulf felt the ground move underneath him, and the two old friends looked on a scene from Beowulf's past. It was Reis standing on a bridge near Murond and Beowulf looking on from the shadows.

"Sh," Renault chided. "It's just getting good."

The figure Beowulf walked up to the girl on the bridge and handed her a package.

"Aw, Beowulf," she cooed. "That's sweet. What is-" She opened it and revealed a small clock. She gave Beowulf a confused look.

"It's so you can get up early and learn to spar," Beowulf said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "With me."

"You know what Beowulf," Reis said, slipping her hand into Beowulf's. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

She pulled in close to him and they kissed. He pulled his hand out of hers and put them around her waist, and she put hers around his neck. His hands roved a little around her body, forceful enough to imply he wanted more, but subtle enough to still be a gentlemen. The perfect amount.

"Aw," Renault cooed, and the scene froze. "How sweet. But let's look at it from a different standpoint." The view shifted from Reis and Beowulf to Buremonda. He was standing behind a couple of bushes and watching, absolutely mortified.

"I can just hear it now," Renault said, mocking Buremonda. " 'He was my best friend, how could he?' Always was a little dense."

"Why are you showing me all this," Beowulf asked, very confused.

"Because I made a deal with a higher power to get you out of limbo," Renault said. "Which is where I've been stuck after I died because of some of the, um, things I did with your classmates back in Gariland. Anyway, I couldn't get into Heaven without getting you back in Ivalice."

"What?" Beowulf was still very confused. "I don't understand any of this. I'm just-"

"Sh," Renault chided again. "Watch this right here." He began to play the scene in slow motion, until it showed Buremonda in a position clutching his chest with a look of intense pain on his face.

"Right there," Renault chuckled. "You can see the moment where his heart breaks and his head snaps."

"Oh my god," Beowulf said, utterly amazed. "I knew obsessed over her, but I had no idea he was-"

"Oh well," Renault said. "Let's move on."

Beowulf got that 'earth moving under his feet' feeling again, and they moved to Buremonda's dorm room he shared with Beowulf and Kletian. It was pretty modest, mostly consisting of a cot, a desk, and a lamp on either side. The floor was dirt, and the walls were filthy. Beowulf always assumed that these meager conditions were part of Rofel's training.

"Now I never knew about any of this," Renault said. "I didn't know any of you five when you were training with Rofel, but I saw all this coming from your high school days in Gariland."

Buremonda was throwing random ingredients into a pot that was being lit by a bright purple fire. The liquid inside was glowing a dull neon green.

"Fareth Kaos De Vanda," Buremonda chanted. "Have to get this finished before Reis shows. Kaos De Urlitz Dragona."

"This had been going on for about a half an hour now," Renault commented. "He's waiting for- Oh never mind, there she is."

Reis walked in the room. "Buremonda, hi," she said nervously. "Why did you ask me over. And what is that cauldron doing in-"

"How are you and Beowulf," Buremonda asked coldly. "Are things good between you two?"

"Well, we're still friends if that's what you mean," Reis answered. "What is this about-"

"Liar!" Buremonda yelled. "I saw you two. Kissing in the gardens. You betrayed me!"

"Buremonda," Reis tried to comfort him. "I have liked him for a long time now and-"

"Kaos De Urlitz Dragona," Buremonda screamed. "Dragona es Feolio! Change Reis! This is your punishment for your sin."

Beowulf watched in horror as the young mage started to turn purple and was no longer bipedal. She grew claws and fangs and all sorts of other terrible things. Reis was no more, and the Holy Dragon had taken her place. Buremonda laughed madly.

"That's what you get," he said, pointing at her and laughing again. "That's what you get for sinning against God!"

The Holy Dragon let out a wretched cry, and raced out of the room. Beowulf and Renault followed. Further down the hall, they saw Tara, Kletian, Rofel, and Beowulf himself come out of their rooms, well Kletian came out of Tara's, to watch the spectacle. Everyone was clambering for Beowulf to do something, but he couldn't bring himself to.

"This is your punishment too Beowulf," Buremonda yelled at him, and Beowulf turned to look at him. "Letting yourself get seduced by that little harlot."

"You monster!" Beowulf screamed, and lunged at Buremonda with the Hrunting outstretched to skewer him with it, but it just bounced harmlessly off his midsection.

"Demonic pacts," Buremonda chuckled evilly. "They promised to keep me safe if I delivered them a dragon." He laughed madly and disappeared. Beowulf started to follow the Holy Dragon.

"Beowulf wait," Rofel yelled after him.

"Why, Rofel," Beowulf asked, even though he already knew the answer. "She's one of us. I just want to help her."

"She's a liability now," Rofel replied calmly. "Healing her will only waste our valuable time and energy." Beowulf gave him a defiant look and continued to march away.

"If you leave now, you can never come back," Rofel called, and his lapdog Kletian nodded. Beowulf stopped again, turned around, and in his last act of defiance, drove the Hrunting into the dirt floor. Then he continued out.

"And that's the story of how Kletian Drowa became a Shrine Knight," Renault narrated. "Because of two men's love for the same woman."

"What about Tara?" Beowulf asked.

"Right after you left, she went after Buremonda, and still hasn't found him," Renault said. "Love and religion can make people do damn crazy things."

"I had no idea," Beowulf said, amazed.

"So now you know," Renault said. "So have you gotten over those feelings of uncertainty yet, 'cuz I'm about ready to get to Heaven."

"How did you know about that?" Beowulf asked.

"You told me," Renault replied. "Well, not directly, but the dead can hear all the living's thoughts. And you might want to tell Malak that it ain't gonna happen when you get back."

"When I get back?" Beowulf was thoroughly confused.

"Yup." Renault raised his hand, and the entire structure flashed white.

A/N: This was about twice as long as usual, but I think it was about twice as good. I really enjoyed this chapter, and I like Beowulf more now.

Let me say something: like most of you probably did, I first thought of Buremonda as an old man who was jealous of Reis and Beowulf's love. But I thought this was more exciting. And also, keep close tabs on Buremonda and Tara: they're not gone for good.

Next chapter is, aw hell I'm gonna screw up the order again and go with Kylie so you all can meet one of my originals.


	7. Chapter 6: Kylie Masters

Kylie Masters was never exactly head of her class. She never aced a test, and she was almost always late for everything. And this morning, she was late for her first practical battle. Thieves were attacking the school. She had to be there.

"Shit, shit," she thought out loud. "Shit, shit, shit, I'm gonna be late!" She grabbed her squire's sword and tunic, slipping the tunic over her blonde head. She dashed out her dormitory she shared with Cindy, Dorothy, and Ophelia, her fellow cadets that were to be stationed with one of her best friends, Ramza Beoulve. He was great. She backed out of the door, still trying to sheath her sword. She stumbled onto the main road. In the middle, she saw Ramza stab his sword into the chest of a man clad in peasants garb. His living companions, a chemist and a female squire, looked at each other, and than ran for the hills. Out of breath, her hair a mess, and her sword swinging limply at her side, Kylie ran up to Ophelia. She tripped on the way.

"Why do you continue committing acts like robbery? You wouldn't have died this way if you'd led an honest life," Ramza mused.

"Did I miss anything?" Kylie panted, her blue eyes betraying her exhaustion. She had always been a little shorter than everyone else, but her bent over and panting made it even worse.

"Yeah, the whole battle," griped Cindy. "You're real late."

"Don't worry too much Kylie," Ramza said. "The Academy won't kick you out just because you missed one battle."

Later on, Kylie faced the board.

"Miss Masters, you are regularly late for every single battle," the head of the Gariland Board of Education said as he flipped through Kylie's record. "Every single lecture, every single training session, everything. Normally, we'd expel you, but due to your outstanding performance in the battles you showed up for, the Board has decided to parole you under the watchful eye of the Academy's best student, Ramza Beoulve."

Kylie's eyes lit up for a second, but her years of training her mock disappointment fell into place as a scowl appeared on her face.

"And, as an added bonus," the head continued. "You will also be assigned with our most punctual student, Ophelia Kaishou, at her request. She felt that perhaps some of her attendance habits would rub off on you."

On the outside, Kylie scowled, but on the inside, she did a little dance. She was going to be stationed with her best friends and not moved for a little over a year! No transfers, no reassignments, no nothing! Just her, and Opie, and Ramza, and Delita for a whole year!

"I accept your terms," Kylie said, faking reluctance. She was escorted outside by two other promising students, and major teacher's pets, Alicia and Lavian. When she was finally reunited with the rather large group that was going to Igros to perform boring guard duty, she jumped on the back of her good friend Ophelia Kaishou.

"Oh god Opie," she yelled in her ear. "Oh I love you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Um, you're welcome," Ophelia said, obviously disturbed by a girl tackling her from behind. "Could you get off of me now?"

"Oh, right," Kylie said, and made a serious face. "We're all serious now that we graduated. Can't have any fun anymore, can we?"

"Are you kidding?" Delita Hyral said from in front of Ramza. "With the four of us, we'll have a blast!"

"Who else are we stationed with?" Kylie asked.

"Well, there's your boyfriend, David," Ramza replied, and Kylie squealed with delight. "Dorothy, and a few new recruits that fought with us, Cindy, Keane and Akintunde?"

"Yeah, I think that's right," Ophelia replied. "We're supposed to meet up with a squadron of Limberry knights on the way. The Aegis Knights. The leader is-"

"Algus Sadalfas," Delita said.

"That's my name," came a voice to Kylie's right. She spun around to see a young, blonde boy in blue overalls with a red long sleeve shirt on underneath. He smirked. "Don't wear it out."

"Who are you?" Kylie asked.

"I'm Algus," he replied, and the scene disappeared. Kylie's memories of the five years she spent with Ramza and the rest of his group. Golgorand, Murond, Lionel, Riovones, Limberry, Igros, and all the rest of the ordeals they went through in that four and three quarters years extension of their original mission to guard Igros.

"Algus," Kylie spat, losing some of that happy-go-lucky quality after seeing, and causing, so much death. "What are you doing here?"

"I cut a deal with a higher power to get you out of here to face something, what it is we don't know, but you have to kill it. Or stop it. Or something. I don't care. What I do care about is you getting over your issues about Ramza. All that baggage."

"What baggage?" Kylie asked. "Ramza and I had a good breakup, no tears, no nothing."

"Oh I'm not talking about Ramza," Algus said. "I wasn't around for that. Ramza killed me. No, the guy I'm referring to is more around my time during the party. You know, a monk."

"David," Kylie said. "Yeah, there were some tears there. But I got over it."

"Oh God, why did I like you?" Algus looked up and clutched at his hair. "You're so stupid! I'll spell it out for you in plain English. It's… not… your… baggage!"

"Oh," Kylie finally understood him. "It's David's baggage. He's the one who has carried it around for four years."

"Yes," Algus said in a sarcastic, mocking tone. "It's about goddamn time. Just watch the scene."

It was a layout of Kylie holding David's hands with them standing face to face, nose to nose. Kylie remembered this moment as the one in which she broke up with him for good. It was after Fort Zeakden in the Inn at Igros, and the group had gone their separate ways. Dorothy had gone to look for Ramza, Ophelia had gone back to Gariland to speak with the Board, and David wanted to head for Igros, taking Kylie with him. But she didn't want to go. She left him and headed for Zarghidas.

"It's just…" she remembered saying, and how she could almost taste the sadness radiating from poor David. "Things change after such a traumatic event. Feelings change. I don't know if I feel the same way know as I did back then. I'm sorry." Then she left him for about four months until she went shopping in Dorter and found him and Ramza again.

"I was ecstatic," Kylie reminisced. "To think I'd see my old friends again, after all that time. Too bad we got thrust into a war against the Zodiac Braves."

"Yeah, it was," Algus said. "When you get out, talk to David. He'll be waiting for you. Then, I'll get out of limbo and into Heaven."

"Wait," Kylie threw her hands into the air. "Before, you said you liked me?"

Algus rolled his eyes and the whole room turned white.

A/N: What do you think? Do you like Kylie? She was created to be likable, but most of my "likable" characters seem annoying. I like Kylie, she's got a lot of potential as a comic relief character. I like many of the other originals better, but hey, she's not bad. Okay, next up is Malak, and a new twist on his history.


	8. Chapter 7: Malak Galthana

Malak Galthana woke up in the old Kamyuja headquarters. He remembered this room well. The smell of his roommate Auron permeating the air, the straw mats which supposedly were the only things Barinten could afford, the dingy walls which had all sorts of things living in their walls, and so on and so forth. Malak really hoped that Barinten did that because he wanted to challenge his assassins mentally and physically, but he suspected it was simply because he was cheap. This was the room he shared with Auron, and his sister's room was right across the hallway. She shared it with this nice brunette woman named Vanessa Broyer, or something. Auron had had a brief fling with her a few years ago, but Rafa told him to end it.

It really surprised him how much hold Rafa had over him. It surprised everyone else too. Especially his best friend and roommate Auron. They had gotten into some trouble over the years. They once were sent to assassinate a mere child for no other reason than an initiation test. Auron wouldn't do it, but Malak, always loyal to Barinten, killed the child to please him. Since Malak and Auron were a team, Barinten let them both in, but Auron was always unnerved by Malak from then on.

"Well, that was nothing compared to what Rafa did," the voice of Auron floated from behind him. Malak turned around.

"Auron," Malak said, obviously surprised. "You died. In the battle against Limberry. You took an-"

"Arrow to the neck?" Auron cut him off. He tilted his head to the left, revealing a pierce wound in his neck. "Yeah, I died. I'm a spirit. And I made a deal with someone to get you out of the limbo you got stuck in after the battle with Altima. Then, I get to go out of the Hell I'm stuck in."

"Why did you go to Hell?" Malak asked. "You always struck me as kind of a boy scout."

"Yeah well, some of the stuff Rafa and I did behind closed doors," Auron said reluctantly. "You might want to talk your sister out of bondage."

"Talk her out of what?"

"Yeah, and also we killed someone," Auron said "Together. And add in all that stuff we did while we were in the Kamyuja. Not exactly Heaven worthy."

"I'm still back on Rafa's into bondage," Malak said, shocked.

"Yeah we did some pretty kinky things," Auron said sarcastically. "Once we killed a chicken and drank its blood. Can we get back to the topic at hand please?"

Malak put his hands up in the air. "Okay, okay, I'll buy it. So, what, now you're gonna show me a time from Christmas past?"

"Something like that," Auron said. The room from Malak's days in the Kamyuja disappeared and a scene from the more recent past in Riovanes Castle. It was right before Rafa left.

"Malak," she had cried to him. "Please believe me."

"No, no," Malak said to her. "It's far too absurd. The Grand Duke would never do that to you. He loves us too much. After our parents were killed, he took us in. He took us under his wing. If we have to kill a few people to pay him back for our lives, then I say it's alright."

"Do you know who sanctioned the attack on our village Malak?" Rafa yelled. "I saw the signature at the bottom of the order. Medina down in records showed it to me. I saw the signature with my own eyes. And do you know what it said? Hm? 'Grand Duke Gelkanis Barinten, Thirty-Fourth King of Riovanes Castle'. That is the man who killed our parents, burned down our hometown, and raped me!"

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Malak yelled. "Why would the Grand Duke do that? He loves us. We're his favorites."

"Because we are the only people left in the world now who have the Heaven and the Hell skills," Rafa said. "Why do you think he burned down our village?"

"Nonsense," Malak retorted. "The report said it was a dragon attack. It was probably that same dragon who attacked us years before."

"Listen to me very carefully brother," Rafa said softly. By now, just about everyone in the castle had come out to hear the siblings' squabble. "The Grand Duke… is evil. He ordered the attack on our village to get the unique skills only we possess. I'll get Medina to show-"

"Medina's dead," the sinister voice of the Grand Duke came from behind Rafa. She turned around. "She was giving out private information. Don't believe a word this harlot says, my beloved son. You know in your heart that I didn't do all those horrible things."

"You know brother," Rafa said, her eyes about to burst forth with a cascade of tears. "Somewhere deep inside you know I'm right, but you don't want to admit it."

"Rafa, my dear," Barinten began, and extended his hand to Rafa. She pulled away.

"I'll make you see," Rafa said. "Someday, you'll see brother. I… am… right." Then she jumped out the nearest window.

"Find her! I want a team on this now!" Barinten yelled almost before she went through the glass. "Malak? Head the team. Bring her back alive."

Auron whistled. "Drama, eh?"

"Yeah, I realize now she was right," Malak said. "Too bad it took my death, by the hand of the Grand Duke himself no less, to finally figure it out."

"He couldn't be here today," Auron continued. "But he wants you to have this message: You and Rafa were always the special ones. Even without the Heaven and Hell skills, you were a cut above the rest."

"So, what now?" Malak asked, turning towards his former best friend. "Do we make up and hug? Or can I go back because I saw my little sister throw a tantrum."

"You're not taking this seriously!" Auron yelled. "You need to realize that I saved your sister!"

Malak stopped for a second. "Wait, what?"

Auron pursed his lips, took a deep breath, why, Malak was unsure, and began to speak. "When she was running from you, and you caught up with her in Yardow, she was nearly killed by your ninja. I alerted her to the shruiken in time to avoid getting hit."

"You saved her life," Malak said, almost appreciatively.

"And that's what you needed to realize," Auron said. "That, and it won't work with Luna."

"What?"

"Just trust me on this one," Auron said, wringing his hands. "I can't tell you why, because that would be cheating, but you and Luna aren't meant to be together. Understand?"

Malak sighed. "Yes, I understand," he said, not really meaning it and knowing full well that he was going to try and talk her into having dinner with him like he always did. Auron seemed to sense this because he rolled his eyes as Malak said those words.

"I can see where you're coming from though," Auron said, and he whistled. "Damn that girl is fine. I'd like to take a piece of that back with me. But I can't because she's-" He paused. "Never mind."

"So, what, now I'm just supposed to forget that you had bondage sex with my twelve year old sister?" Malak asked, wild eyed.

Auron paused. "Twelve and a half."

Before Malak could reply, the room glowed white.

A/N: Wow. Rafa's into bondage? At age twelve? Sorry about that. I really don't know where that came from. No wonder Auron was in Hell. But all in all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Malak seems a little underrated (because he sucks) and I had a little fun dipping into his Kamyuja days. This is not the last you'll see of some of these characters. And also, I know my chapters are kind of short, and I know I try to cram a lot into them, but 1) my attention span is not big enough to write so much, and 2) I really don't care about most of the characters I'm writing about. Usually just the playable character and their Spirit Guide, and I don't really like anyone else in the chapter. Once I get all those characters I like in one chapter, the length will go up. Next is my summoner, Strawberry Zanuba, another original. And you will eventually meet Luna, and I think it will eventually be painfully obvious why Malak will never be with her.


	9. Chapter 8: Strawberry Zanuba

Ever since birth, the two friends Strawberry Zanuba and Vanessa Broyer were inseparable. They could often be seen in the fields trying to summon Moogle, the simplest summon of them all. Continuously, they studied the texts in the Zanuba household library until they finally could do it. At ages five and six, Strawberry and Vanessa could call a summon creature. They were hailed throughout Lionel Castle Town for their accomplishments in the job of summoner. Everyone said how good they were.

This was the reason why Vanessa turned into such a spoiled brat. Once one is a child prodigy, the people around them spoil him or her. Strawberry took this treatment quite modestly, but Vanessa became spoiled rotten. The relatively adult Strawberry watched the scenes of her friend yelling at and hitting and firing her assistants for nothing more than the wrong amount of pulp in her orange juice.

"Yup, and that's the reason I'm still here and not hangin' out with the angels," Vanessa's voice came from behind her. Strawberry turned around. There she was, her old childhood friend. Her chestnut brown hair glistened in the light produced by the sun in her vision, held back by her red Summoner's Horn. She wore the traditional robes of a summoner with one subtle difference: the sleeveless dress she wore under her green robe was silver and not black. Her friend also had a penchant for high heels, and these were jet black and complimented her outfit nicely, if Strawberry did say so herself. Strawberry's outfit was similar, yet different. It was the traditional summoner's garb, with the crest of Bart Co. on the front. She had meant to retire it after she quit and joined Ramza, but never got around to it.

"What are you doing here?" Strawberry asked, a little harsher than her upbeat personality liked. "Weren't you killed?"

"Well, yes," Vanessa said. "But not the way you think. I survived that final battle against you, but just barely. I held on long enough to meet a strange group of people who called themselves the 'Acolytes of Ajora' or something."

"Ajora?" Strawberry asked, tossing her golden hair out of her eyes. "Like Ajora Glabados or Altima? I was never really clear on the difference between the two."

"Neither was I." Vanessa shrugged. "Either. Or maybe both. Or maybe there's no difference between them. Who can say? What you need to remember is that spat we had a while back. You remember what it was over, don't you?"

"I remember you tried to kill me," Strawberry answered. "I remember that you were going to kill my family, and I wouldn't let you, so you attacked."

The scene moved ahead ten years. Strawberry was fifteen. Now she had mastered Ramuh and Shiva, two much more difficult summons, but Vanessa had shot ahead and had already mastered most of the summons available, including the elusive Lich. She truly was a prodigy. But all that power, mostly that of the Lich itself, poisoned her with its evil.

"You had begun to behave irrationally," Strawberry recounted. "You weren't acting yourself. You had become a servant of the summons, instead of the other way around. The way it's supposed to be."

"Oh give me a break," Vanessa bellowed. "You were just as much a 'servant of the summons' as I was. As every summoner is."

"Summoning is a difficult task to master," Strawberry replied.

"Not for all of us," Vanessa crowed. "Some it just comes naturally to. Like you and being a bitch!"

"That's it!" Strawberry yelled, and lunged at Vanessa. However, she only passed right through.

"What part about 'spirit guide' are you not getting? Hello, incorporeal over here? Know much about ghosts?"

"More than you'd think," Strawberry said. "I pray my father's finds rest every night."

"Guess what?" Vanessa said, then thought for a bit. "Nah, I'll tell you after we watch our final fire fight."

Strawberry watched as her younger self faced off against Vanessa.

"You attacked my parents!"

"They had it coming," Vanessa spat. "All pompous and telling me my power was weak and misused. Self-righteous bastards!"

"Feel the fury of Ramuh!" Strawberry yelled and sent the lightning deity after her former friend. Vanessa easily countered with her own Ramuh summon.

"Let's see how you like not being able to cast magic," she said, throwing her head back. "Silf, come forward!"

"The most underrated of all summons," the spirit Vanessa said, watching her younger self with pride. The fairy-like summon hit Strawberry head on while she was trying to cast Shiva.

Strawberry opened her mouth to speak, but the incantation wasn't coming out. She tried to speak, but Vanessa's Silf summon had silenced her spell casting. So she did what most anyone would have done in that situation: she panicked and ran. On the way, she reached into her item pack and searched around for an Echo Grass to cure her silence. She pulled one out and swallowed the bitter tasting plant. Making a face and sticking out her tongue, she stopped and turned around. Unfortunately, her back was to a cliff overlooking the ocean.

"Now I'm not silenced anymore," she said back to her adversary.

"Fine by me," Vanessa replied. "It's almost over anyway. Titan!" The enormous giant came out of the ground behind her and brought it's mighty hands down. The ground began to split apart under the two girls' feet.

Then, it happened. The ground collapsed in patches. Titan disappeared and it was just the two of them. Strawberry yelled out hurriedly for Shiva to save her, and Shiva appeared and caught her under the arms. The feeling was chilling, Strawberry remembered, like having ice under your armpits. Summoning Titan had used up all the remaining magic power Vanessa had, so she couldn't summon anything. Strawberry watched as the body of her best friend hit the water.

"I survived that fall," Vanessa said. "And I pulled out one of my spare Ethers and healed myself with Moogle. Then I summoned Leviathan, and it took me to land where I checked into a hospital under a fake name. Then, a few years later, I wandered into the wrong temple and got killed by Ajora's Acolytes. Watch out for them. They're dangerous."

"Okay," Strawberry agreed. "Oh, before you showed me this you said something about… something. You never did finish the thought."

"Oh, right," Vanessa said guiltily. "I, um, killed your father."

"My father the Shrine Knight?" Strawberry said, amazed.

"No, your father the garbage man," Vanessa replied sarcastically. "Yes your father the Shrine Knight. Jorge Zanuba was one of my targets from my Kamyuja days."

"Where? How? Why?" Strawberry asked, but it was too late. A white light filled the entire space.

A/N: Well, that's Strawberry. Due to the rather tragic nature of this chapter, I didn't get to play on the less depressed side of her. Anyway, back to the plot. Who are these 'Acolytes of Ajora'? And why did Vanessa warn Strawberry about them more than once? Will I ever get to the end of this book? Find out the answers to these and more questions later. But for now, Rafa Galthana is up next.


	10. Chapter 9: Rafa Galthana

When Rafa was a child, she had had a dragon friend to play with when she was bored. She never told anyone about her, not even Malak, because he was always the loyal one and would have told their parents. Then they would have to kill the dragon. They played together almost every day. One time, she and the dragon snuck into town and stole a sheep for the dragon's dinner.

"Cute kid," came a sinister man's voice from Rafa's left. "But I fail to see how this gets you out of limbo."

Rafa turned to face the man. He wore a green robe with a goldenrod undercoat. His straw colored hair was streaked back, and he held himself with such composure that one might think him royalty. And one would be right, for this was the Grand Duke Gelkanis Barinten himself.

"I made a deal with some sort of higher power to get you the hell out of here so I can go to Heaven," Barinten said. "Why he's giving someone like me this offer, I don't know, and I don't particularly care. All I do care about is get you to deal with some sort of issue you have, and get the hell over it so I can leave."

"And what issue would that be exactly?" Rafa asked skeptically, because this man had deceived her in the past. The scene outside changed to match Rafa's memories inside. It switched to her hometown of Lycia, where she and her family lived peacefully until she was about six and Malak was ten. Her parents had told her to go out and play by the river with their aunt, a boisterous woman by the name of Fiona, while the chief elder, her father, talked with a man who had visited their town.

"Well?" asked her father Marik, chief of the village. "What have you come to me for? Do you have need of my Hell skill to protect someone? Because that is the only way that you will ever get the Heaven and Hell skills. To be used as protection."

"Ah Marik," the Barinten from years ago scolded. "Naïve as always. That was the reason your village was conquered so quickly during the war. Pathetic."

"Barinten," Marik spat back at him. "What do you want?"

"Why, nothing more or less than the Heaven and Hell skills you and your wife possess," Barinten threatened. "And if you don't offer them to me freely, I will take them from you by force."

"Impossible," Marik said. "You are just as able to take the green from the leaves as to separate us from our powers. The only way it will pass from our bodies is upon our deaths."

"Then, my dear old friend," Barinten said, reaching inside his hunter green cloak and beginning to pull out a weapon. "You have just written your own obituary."

The Grand Duke pulled out an ancient weapon, unknown to anyone in the village. Rafa now recognized it to be a gun. Most of the villagers, including Marik's wife and Rafa's mother Ishizu, heard the quarrel in the tent and came to investigate. Since no one knew the gun's power, Barinten gunned them down, one by one, until ten were dead. It was then he realized he was outnumbered.

"Fine," said the Grand Duke. "I'll just call for back up." At that point, the two mages Rafa recognized to be Auron Stratski and Vanessa Broyer burst into the tent and set fire to it. Then they preceded to set fire to the rest of the homes. Rafa was mortified.

"My Auron did all this?" Rafa asked, stunned. "He isn't capable… He can't be…"

"Yes, Auron was a bad apple," the Grand Duke commented. "There's one in every bunch. But I took care of him. Sent him on a suicide mission against Marquis Elmdor's assassins, Celia and Lede. You know, the human ones."

"Who are Celia and Lede?" Rafa asked, as she was hiding safely in the fort in Poeskos Lake when Ramza and Ophelia coordinated the attack on Limberry because Rafa was never much of a fighter back then. Now, on the other hand, she was well versed in the Truth and White Magic spells, and quite good at casting and controlling them.

"Well, the two your friends may remember were demons," Barinten said. "But the real ones were actually servants of the Marquis. Good women too. Very righteous and god fearing."

"You monster!" Rafa lunged at him, but she passed right through. Confused, Rafa looked back at the man she once trusted.

"Please," the Duke said nonchalantly. "I am a spirit. You can't touch me."

"Did I just need to know what happened to my parents or are we going to continue this delightful little chat, oh great 'King Weapon'?" Rafa mocked him, her somewhat shy barriers breaking down because of her intense hatred for this one man.

"Well, your parents are part of it," Barinten continued. "You remember how after your aunt heard the screams, she went after your parents first, correct?"

"Correct," Rafa replied, still on her guard. She raised an eyebrow.

"Well," the Duke finished. "Who do you think transferred the powers of Heaven and Hell from your parents? Did you think it was me?"

"Aunt Fiona gave me my Heaven skills?" Rafa thought out loud, looking at her hands. "If it hadn't been for them, would Malak and I have been in the Kamyuja?"

"Are you kidding?" Barinten said, and Rafa let out a sigh of anger at her aunt. "Of course you would. You two were as adept as mages get. If you only knew Poison you would still have gotten into my special organization. Your Heaven and Hell skills only helped the decision."

"So what you're saying is," Rafa replied. "That whether or not Aunt Fiona had given us our powers we would have been in the Kamyuja anyway?"

"Yes," the Grand Duke replied. "So you can't pin all those people you killed during your stay at my castle on her. It's all your fault."

"No."

"All those deaths, all those women, all those children," the Duke continued. "You reveled in it. And at the time, you were only twelve. Imagine what I could have done with you if I had kept you until you were older."

"Shut up!"

"Yes, yes," Barinten said. "The truth hurts doesn't it? The truth burns like a holy fire!"

"Leave me alone!" Rafa yelled. "I will not take responsibility for those deaths. Those were your orders! The deaths are on your head!"

"Au contraire, ma peche," the Grand Duke stated, infuriatingly calm. "It was you who cast the spell. Or swung the sword, or whatever the case may be, that is unimportant. The important part is you could have disobeyed the order."

"Then I would be dead," Rafa snapped.

"But all those people wouldn't be," Barinten replied. It seemed almost as if he was testing her, staging his side but trying to get Rafa to believe the contrary.

Rafa thought for a moment. "I suppose you're right. I'm a killer."

"Rafa, Rafa," the Duke scolded and clucked his tongue. "You always did cave too easily." Seeing Rafa would not change her mind, he shook his head and the room glowed black.

"They would have died anyway."

A/N: What? Did you really expect everyone to pass this higher power's test? If you did, then you're naïve. She may or may not be the only one who fails however. But this is pretty good odds. Only one out of nine so far. Anyway, I like sadistic killer Rafa. It's so much better than the sugar and spice and everything boring character that she is in the game. Up next is a look into the Fifty Years War through the eyes of T.G. Cid. Also, Olan's true parentage is revealed.


	11. Chapter 10: Cidolfas Orlandu

If you asked a veteran of the Fifty Years War, hell, any war, to tell you stories of their war days, most of them would not say a word. Cidolfas Orlandu was one of those men. He, if he wanted, could tell stories that would make anyone's hair stand on end, but he chose discretion over vanity. Druksmald Goltana was one of his closest friends, and he was an old war comrade. They were together when he was the leader of the Angel Knights, an independent organization consisting of random knights and mages and such. That was where he was stationed during the Fifty Years War: in the Angel Knights.

He was the leader of his platoon, and it was also where he met his wife Sasha, one of the first female lancers. She was stationed under him. His other troops included Aido Grevados, whom people said was his identical twin, a new recruit called Vormav Tingel who, though young, showed promise, his fiancée, Ursula Cyprine who was an accomplished geomancer, Balbanes Beoulve, a powerful Arc Knight, Louise Durai, Balbanes' fiancée and a strong archer, and Robert Kaishou, a mediator who was about Cid's age. The seven of them got as close as people get when they are together that much. All of them, except for Vormav and Ursula, were about in their thirties. Vormav and Ursula were about ten years younger.

"Yes, we had some good times back then," a familiar voice came to the right of him. Orlandu turned to his old friend Grevados. His 'identical twin'. The man who agreed to be killed so that Orlandu could escape.

"Ah, Grevados my old friend," Orlandu said wistfully. "How are things in Heaven?"

"I'm not in Heaven," Grevados said. "That's part of the reason why I am here. I am here to get you out of this limbo, and for that service, I get to follow you there."

"Well, let's go. Unless something is keeping us," Orlandu said frankly, as is his way. His friend nodded, and Orlandu sighed. "It's never simple, is it old friend?"

Grevados laughed. "No, I suppose not," he laughed. "You remember Sasha of course."

"Yes," Orlandu said. "I married her."

"Yes, I remember," Grevados assured him. "Do you remember what happened to her that one day, September 19, back when we were-"

"Don't ever bring that up," Orlandu said quietly. "Don't ever bring that up."

"But you have to," Grevados said. "There are some major unresolved issues there."

The scene changed to a bleak plateau, where Orlandu and his six Black Sheep Knights faced against Bart Rudvich and a squadron of Chemists and Mediators, there must have been about twenty, but they could handle it. They were, however, the Angel Knights.

"Okay everybody," T.G. Cid commanded. "You know what to do. Attack pattern Omicron." This Orlandu was not old like the one standing back with his old war buddy reliving the battle in Lenalia Plateau. He was young and muscular and had a full head of dark, thick hair.

'Some things change over time,' Orlandu thought with a slight chuckle and running his hand over his mostly bald head.

Back in the battle, T.G. Cid motioned for Louise and Robert to create a distraction from far away. He also led Balbanes and young Vormav to take on the Chemists. Lastly, Grevados and Ursula went after the Mediators because they had a natural ability to avoid the silver tongue of the Mediator. The distraction provided by Louise and Robert worked, and Rudvich motioned for a Chemist and a Mediator to follow him after the two. It was a shame, Orlandu remembered thinking, that they didn't get more to follow. If they did, she might still be alive.

"Ah, ah, ah," Grevados chided. "Watch the battle please. It's both our asses if you don't."

Orlandu looked back painfully as the battle was going quite well. He and his four companions were cutting through the troops like a hot knife through butter. Ursula, always a bit on the dark side, had choked a few to death just for the fun of it. Nevertheless, she was a good warrior and a just, dependable ally. Grevados had hacked through a few himself, but nothing too serious. Vormav, who had some qualms about killing humans, had simply injured and left them weaponless with his Break abilities that came with the knowledge of a Divine Knight. His Save the Queen would go to his son, if he had one worthy of it, after he was too old to fight. Balbanes, ever the hero, had to rush in and save Ursula when she was continuously bombarded with their enemy's bullets. Of course, she didn't need the help, but she let Balbanes play the hero, much like Agrias did with Balbanes' son, Ramza in the present day.

After a few minutes had passed, the battle was short because the unique abilities possessed by the members of the Angel Knights was overwhelming, even for machine weaponry, the five members that fought were confused. The two people running the distraction hadn't come back yet. Orlandu led the others to investigate.

Ursula was an expert tracker, and she managed to follow the trail that Louise and Robert left. Then, the group noticed something strange. Louise had always worn a lavender cape on her back, and had almost never taken it off. Now it was thrown haphazardly on the ground. Orlandu winced as he remembered all he thought was that Louise was just being careless, that she had left it there by mistake. Why he thought that, he did not remember at the time, but her cape was not forgotten, nor was it left strategically. There were signs on the top of the cape that he did not notice at first glance. It was ripped off.

"And we found Robert Kaishou a few hundred feet down the road, next to a tree," Grevados recounted. "Then, the bodies of the Chemist and the Mediator. They had been completely drained of blood. Neither Robert or Louise could do that, so that left only one suspect."

"Rudvich," Orlandu spat. "I remember the way he held a gun to her head."

The scene below reflected Orlandu's memory. Vormav, Orlandu, Balbanes, and Ursula were standing in front of Bart Rudvich, who had a gun to Louise's head. Balbanes pleaded with Rudvich to stop, but he would not hear it. He just wanted bloodshed. So he fired. All that Orlandu could remember was blood everywhere and Balbanes screaming after the trader traitor. So much blood. Far too much for one young woman, especially the mother of three.

Louise's last words to Balbanes were "Take care of the boys." They had three children: Dycedarg, who was nine, baby Zalbag, just born a few months ago and being taken care of by the family nurse, Kira Hyral, and also a third son, one who only the members of the Angel Knights and his caretaker Kira knew about. His name was Olan Beoulve, and he had been kept a secret for three years because of his magic. Balbanes, proud warrior that he was, realized that from a young age that Olan was a mage, and he did not want to raise a fruity magician son.

"And he still didn't want to, even though Olan was one of the only things he had left of Louise," Grevados said. "So he left him to his best friend to take care of, and gave him his mother's maiden name: Durai."

"Olan is my responsibility," Orlandu said thoughtfully. "The only people that knew about this were myself, Balbanes, and I think somehow young Dycedarg found out about it. Sharp as a tack that one, it was a shame that he turned into a Lucavi Demon." Grevados looked surprised.

"Oh yes," Orlandu's old friend realized. "He was the Goat, Adramelk."

"How do you know all this?" Orlandu questioned, always on the lookout for more knowledge.

"When one is dead, one had access to all the knowledge in the world," Grevados replied. "But the drawback is that one cannot use said knowledge except as a warning, and only under special circumstances."

"Like now."

"Yes Cidolfas," Grevados agreed. "And now that you've received your instructions from this mysterious higher power that summoned me from limbo, when you get out of here, your son Olan will be waiting. Tell him two things: that Balbanes was his father, and to go for it."

"Go for what?" Orlandu asked quickly.

"He'll know," Grevados replied knowingly. He was always like that, keeping things from everyone. "Believe me, he'll probably be thinking it when you ask him. Hell, she'll probably even be there."

"Please tell me more," Orlandu said. "I want to learn more about my son."

But Grevados shook his head, and the area glowed white.

A/N: For those of you who don't remember, Grevados was the man who dressed up as Orlandu to be killed by Delita. Orlandu is a rather boring character, being the perfect fighter and all, but I'll try to make him work with the rest of the young whipper-snappers. The next chapter will probably be a little longer because it's about Mustadio and I like him.


	12. Chapter 11: Mustadio Bunanza

Mustadio Bunanza had always considered himself to be a reasonable person, and only secretive when there were lives at stake, like when he had hidden the true nature of Bart Rudvich's pursuit of himself and his father. But there was one thing he never told anyone.

He never knew his mother.

He had heard stories about her from his father, Besrodio. Things that she did, things that she hoped she'd do, things she did with him, stuff like that. Once his father told him about the time he had lost his dog. It was raining that day, and Mustadio was about six years old. His mother had taken him aside, and told him that she would go out and look for him in the rain. Mustadio remembered that she went out in the rain, in the dead of the night, and brought back his little doggy to him. His memories of her were few and fading, but that one stood out like Bull Demon in a herd of Chocobo.

His father had told him that his mother had gone away on a trip for a few weeks, and then he just decided to say that his mother was 'on permanent vacation' to supplement the term his father had used when he was eight. He did, however, find out about his mother later on in life, when he was a gangly youth of about fourteen.

"Ah yes, those were good times," a sinister voice that Mustadio recognized to be his father's old friend and ex-Shrine Knight Balk Fezol. The middle-aged man walked out of the shadows to reveal his standard silly pompadour haircut, his golden armor draped with a black cloth, and a sour expression on his aged face. Balk Fezol was never one of Mustadio's favorite people, and his view of him had worsened ever since he tried to poison Ramza and the others. Then, Balk had traded in his soul for the chance to become a 'perfect being', devoid of all feeling and emotion and humanity. It was very creepy, and Mustadio usually avoided the whole issue of this pathetic excuse for a 'human life' altogether.

"Balk," Mustadio spat at his father's old friend. "It's so nice to see you again. Did you decide that you weren't going to die again? Like you did in Bed Desert?"

"Nope, I'm dead as a doornail, and for good this time," Balk said. He had a thin red line around his neck that Mustadio recognized as the place where Ramza must have beheaded him to make sure he wouldn't come back again. "And it's a good thing too, because if I was alive and being tortured in Hell for selling my soul to Lucavi, then I wouldn't have been around for some random higher power to come and get you out of limbo and back into Ivalice where you belong. You see, you are one of the most important people ever born Mustadio."

Mustadio was confused. "What are you talking about?" Mustadio replied skeptically. After all, he didn't even trust Balk when he was alive, and now this shady story of some higher power dragging him out of 'limbo' didn't help the believability of this traitor.

"Haven't you ever thought it was strange Mustadio?" Balk said, taking a few steps towards him. "Agrias, Orlandu, Meliadoul, and Beowulf are all knights of a fairly high order, Rafa and Malak are ex-assassins, Reis is a dragon, or at least she was, the Byblos is an ancient creature created by magic, Cloud is a hero from another dimension, Worker 8 is a machine, Alma is the host of the most powerful Zodiac Brave, Strawberry is pretty much the most powerful magic user on the face of the earth since the death of Elibidis, Masahiro's family is ungodly rich, Ophelia has mastered most if not all of the job classes, Kylie is well known throughout the face of Ivalice and has many connections and friends in high places, and Ramza, well, you'll find out why he's special soon enough. Did you ever wonder how you got thrown in with such phenomenal people?"

Mustadio shrugged. "Luck?" He still didn't see what all this had to do with all these flashback thoughts in his mind about his mother and his part in her death.

"Luck?" Balk covered his eyes and slowly dragged his hand down his face, groaning all the while in an extremely annoyed fashion. "How can you possibly still believe in luck? Even after all the impossible things you've seen? Luck does not exist. There is only destiny. Luck is a weak invention of a weak race, and like most other things humans dreamt up, luck doesn't exist. Humans are such a disgusting race, with all their feelings and emotions. Repulsive."

"Uh, Balk," Mustadio pointed out. "Weren't you a human once upon a time?"

"Long ago," Balk replied. "Then I wised up. I am now a 'higher being' Mustadio. I am not human anymore. But the true question is, are you?"

"What?" Mustadio yelled, completely insulted, like someone had just called his mother a whore. "How could you possibly say something like that? Of course I'm human! What a stupid question."

"Your father never did tell you about your mother's true nature did he?" Balk asked, and Mustadio just stared at him like he had a third eye growing out of his nose. Then Balk squealed with excitement like a little schoolgirl. "Ooo, I'm gonna enjoy this. Here, watch this."

The scenery around the two men changed to a dreary street in a dreary town where busy people hurried down the streets. All of them were blank faced, and their clothes were drab and clean. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a young man staggered through the cookie cutter crowd. His face and clothes were all greasy, and he looked like he worked in the docks, working on machines. He looked like he could bench press a couple hundred pounds. He had long, thick blonde hair that fell around his chiseled face. He was dressed in a rubber suit because of the lightning storms around the Goug Docks. Furthermore, the machinery sometimes sparked.

"Is that my father?" Mustadio asked, excited about this new image of his father.

"Um, not exactly," Balk said, holding back what appeared to be a thunderous roar of laughter. After the muscular man ran a scraggly, scrawny young man of about twenty. He had dirty blonde hair, and was also all greasy, but he wore blue jean overalls over a yellow long-sleeve shirt and his hair was tied back in a ponytail. "That's your father."

"Wow," Mustadio marveled. "He looks just like me. Just a little skinnier."

"That other man is your father's employer, Boq Fiyero," Balk explained. "He was not exactly the smartest cookie in the jar, which is why he hired Besrodio. He wasn't exactly the nicest person either, so poor Besrodio always came back to our apartment with bruises and scrapes all over his body. He told me he got them working on some random machine, the subject of the excuse changed every time he made it, but I always knew.

"I once asked him why he put up with it," Balk continued. "And he told me about this girl they rescued on one of his salvage missions. They found a shipwreck off the coast of the island best known as the Murond Holy Place. When your father read the ship's log, the last entry was dated long before they found the girl. That means it had been stranded there for three months. And she was still alive. I worked for Fiyero too, and I searched the ship myself, and there was no food or fresh water on the ship anywhere."

"Wow," Mustadio said curtly. "She survived all that time with no food and no water?"

Balk nodded. "It was a miracle. We were all spellbound. Your father, however, was fascinated by this gorgeous creature we found off the coast of Murond. They got together famously. Well, don't take my word for it. Watch this."

The scene switched again. Now it was in Mustadio's apartment he shared with Balk. This time it showed the young Besrodio talking to a young girl with baby blue hair, dressed in a strapless dress the color of her hair and eyes. The dress opened up at the waist and continued opening down to the feet to reveal a dark blue slip. The girl was intensely beautiful, but in a different in strange way. Mustadio couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Huh," Balk grunted, breaking Mustadio's concentration. "Must be a Bunanza thing."

"But I found my mother's obituary in the papers when I was fourteen," Mustadio said, still partially focused on the freeze frame picture of the blue haired woman with his father. "She didn't look like that."

"Musty," Balk called. "Incest is not the way." Mustadio looked insulted, but he finally stopped staring at the girl. "Just keep watching."

"You are quite the young woman," the Besrodio in the now continuing vision below Mustadio said, smiling. "Living all that time in the shipwreck. How'd you do it?"

"One can live forever on faith alone," the girl said. "That's all I need to survive. So I can carry on my holy mission."

"Oh, so you worked for the church?" Besrodio asked. He appeared to already know the answer to the question, but just wanted to hear her voice again. It was what Mustadio thought an angel would sound like.

"Well, I suppose you could say that," the girl replied. "I'm something of a Pagan Examiner. Perhaps you could help me."

"How could I possibly help a Pagan Examiner?" Besrodio replied. "I'm just a simple engineer."

"Will you help me continue my cause?" the mysterious blue haired girl asked.

"Well, of course," Besrodio replied, somewhat bewildered. "I'll help in any way I-"

She interrupted him by planting a huge kiss right on his lips. He was very surprised. And then the scene just stopped.

"And I would imagine the rest just continues on like a porno moive," Balk speculated. "And you don't need to see that much of your father."

"How do I know that all of this isn't just a hoax?" Mustadio asked. "Hell, for all I know, I'm in a coma and you're pumping me with drugs."

"Are you really that blind?" Balk yelled. "This is your mother here! How could you think anything else. Stupid, worthless human."

"So in nine months I popped out," Mustadio said, still not completely believing Balk.

"Actually, in three months you popped out," Balk said. "That's one of the reasons you're so special."

"And what exactly is the reason I'm so damn special," Mustadio inquired.

"All good things in time, my dear boy," Balk condescended. "But for now, watch your father fall apart." Balk laughed a little when he said that last part.

The scene now switched again to the young Besrodio standing on his doorstep next to a baby in a basket. Mustadio assumed that the baby was him.

"He was destroyed," Balk said, smiling. "Why did I make nice with that man? He disgusts me. Anyway, he spent months looking for that mysterious, nameless girl who had sweaty pig sex with him in his apartment so she could make herself an heir. Personally, I wouldn't have bothered, but he was determined. And then, while looking for her, he wound up in Zigolis Swamp, and got his leg stuck in the muck. You would not believe those swamps, they suck better than a-"

"Please, dear god," Mustadio interrupted him. "Don't finish that metaphor."

"Fine," Balk conceded. "The point is he lost his leg to that swamp. Well, not literally, I mean it was still attached, but it doesn't work right anymore. And because of that, he couldn't teach you the things he knew about fixing things and such. Not that you needed it.

"It took Besrodio and I years and years to learn how to use a gun," Balk continued. "But you picked it up in less than a month. When you were eight. You never were like other children, and you are now not like other men. Although I can't tell you your purpose in life, I can tell you that you are sorely needed back in the real world. And that you're getting there right away."

"Wait," Mustadio said, extending an arm out towards Balk. "Tell me about my adopted mother."

"Sorry son," Balk replied. "Not part of the job description. Besides, that's something that you should discuss with your dad anyway."

Balk grinned and everything glowed white.

A/N: This chapter was a little longer than I expected. About twice the size. That excites me. Like I said, once I get all these wonderful characters back together, the length of the chapters will pick up at least to this length if not longer.

That aside, Mustadio has been one of my favorite characters. He was pretty much the only character I liked the first time I played the game. It took my time to warm up to the others, but I liked Mustadio from the get go. The honesty, the knowledge, being so naïve, being the only one who can use a gun, until you get to Goug anyway. No one else can do that. As for this mysterious destiny of his, well, that will all be made clear in time. Just be patient and don't forget about it. Next is another character I liked from the get go: Agrias Oaks.


	13. Chapter 12: Agrias Oaks

Agrias Oaks had always been a devout follower of the teachings of the Glabados Church. She was a powerful, god-fearing woman, and more the take charge type than most of the team members. But there was one issue she found particularly hard to be take charge about. For about a year and a half now, she had been in love with one of the members of Ramza's band of adventurers, but she felt that her natural masculinity that made her such a good Holy Knight and her natural talent to blend in as 'just one of the guys' made her seem like just that: one of the guys. And of course, he would never go for 'one of the guys'. But, she would never show weakness, not to an opponent, and certainly not to an ally. Maybe Rafa, since she didn't really consider someone who never fought an ally. Even Princess Ovelia contributed at Zirekile Falls.

Anyway, she remembered when she first saw Ramza Beoulve. He had come to the Orbonne Monastery to safely escort the Princess safely back to Igros, where she would be better protected than by two female knights, two male squires, a Holy Knight and a Dark Knight. She would have pretty much the entire Igros guard keeping watch over her. But she was snatched right out from under Agrias' nose. She could not count how many times she had mentally kicked herself for not seeing that the Black Lion crested troops were simply a diversion for Delita Hyral to come in and kidnap the princess. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Come now my dear Agrias." Agrias turned as she heard a familiar voice behind her. "It was not all your fault. Although, we have much more than that to discuss."

"Simon!" Agrias cried with glee, for to her knowledge, Simon Pen Rakshu had died that day Izlude had come looking for Virgo. The details surrounding his death were still slightly shrouded in mystery, as it was unknown to Agrias when and where and by whom he was fatally wounded. "How have you been my old friend? I thought that you had died!"

"I did," Simon replied, and showed her the small hole in his robes where the sword had pierced his side. "And I was sent here, to limbo."

Agrias raised an eyebrow. "Limbo? But you were a man of God when you were alive. Why not just get into Heaven?"

"It is because I am a man of 'God' that I got sent to limbo," Simon said. "Unfortunately, that god was Ajora. But let me tell you Agrias, there is a God. There is one father almighty, and omnipotent ruler who watches us from Heaven, not Hell like 'St.' Ajora. I have seen him, and been judged. Well, not judged really. I mean, I was a good, pious man, if I may be a tad boastful, but covering up the Church's corruption for so many years was the deciding factor for my being sent here.

"But that's not important right now," Simon continued. "What is important is that you, Miss Agrias, were sent here by Altima's last attack. It killed her, for good this time we hope, and ripped a hole in the fabric of time and space. You and your team, as well as the magician Kletian, were hurled into that void in the space-time continuum. And then things get a little hazy until you all ended up here: quite literally in the middle of nowhere."

"Can… can I have a minute?" Agrias asked, trying to take all this information in at once. It was overwhelming.

"I'm afraid not my dear," Simon replied sympathetically. "I must get you to realize something so that you and I may both move on. If you get out of here, I finally get to go to Heaven."

The complete blackness surrounding Agrias turned into the familiar walls of the Orbonne Monastery. Within it's walls, she saw three familiar faces, two knights and a squire. The tall blonde girl with sparkling blue eyes and even more sparkling personality and great faith in Ajora, the shorter, more secular red head with crystalline blue eyes, and the brooding squire with the red cap covering his messy straw colored hair and brown eyes.

"Hey," she remarked. "It's Alicia, Lavian, and, what was that squire's name?"

"Rad," Simon replied, and put a finger to his lips. "Quiet. Listen to them."

"Well Rad, Lavian," Agrias heard Alicia say. "While I was praying today, I was informed by this mysterious voice whom I think was the voice of Ajora tell me to be careful, for today, someone will come and raid what's left of the Monastery."

"After my death," Simon began. "Lavian and Alicia felt that they should protect what was left of Orbonne. And since Rad was engaged to Lavian by that time, he went with them. But that part you already know. This part you don't."

Rad and Lavian looked confused, but humored their friend and agreed with her anyway. The scene fast-forwarded a little, and now it was simply Alicia standing watch outside. She looked bored when suddenly, out of nowhere, a dozen or so powerful-looking soldiers came out of nowhere with a graying knight in golden armor and a purple cape in their lead. His stride had the look of one who had seen much battle and many years, but been possessed by some sort of otherworldly strength. His Save the Queen hung comfortably at his side. As if to sense Agrias' thoughts about to occur, the scene froze.

"Vormav," Agrias said with much disgust as she crinkled her nose and then she spit on the ground as it was customary to do when a Holy Knight said a curse.

"Now, now Agrias," Simon cautioned. "The Vormav Tingel I knew was a highly just man with just a little too much faith in Ajora. The actions you and Ramza have witnessed were all done by Hashmalum, the lion demon who took over his mortal shell after the soul had been scooped out."

"The name Vormav Tingel will still always be a curse to me," Agrias replied bitterly, spitting on the ground again.

The scene resumed as the soldiers lined up behind Vormav. He smiled that sickeningly sweet smile as Rad and Lavian hastily exited the church to face Vormav.

"My dear ladies," Vormav began. "I wish only to bask in the wisdom of Orbonne's vast libraries. Surely you wouldn't deny a scholar the chance for more knowledge would you?"

"If you were a true scholar, Vormav Tingel," Alicia said, and spat after she said his name. "Then we would allow you to pass. But I am wise enough to know that what you seek here cannot simply be knowledge."

"My dear knight, I don't believe you are in the position to 'allow' anything," Vormav said, his voice dripping with poison. He looked to his right, and Rofel brandished his own Save the Queen. He looked to the right, and Kletian brandished one of the only Maces of Zeus left in existence. "I don't want to use force, but I will if I have to."

Each of the knights drew their swords, and Rad pulled his Scorpion Tail from behind him. Vormav smiled that sickly sweet smile, and motioned for his engineers to go inside.

"Rofel?" Vormav said simply, and Rofel snapped to attention. "Go inside and look for the markings on the floor indicating the location of St. Ajora's resting place will you? Everyone else will assist him except for Junk and his men. They will guard the entrance. I will take care of these vermin myself."

Vormav started to draw his own Save the Queen as the two female knights rushed at him, trying to protect what was left of the church. With a quick parry to the right, Vormav knocked Lavian's sword out of her hands. With the return swing, he caught Rad across the jugular. He started bleeding furiously from the neck and fell to his knees, gasping. Still using the momentum from the swing against Lavian, he brought the butt of his sword down on Alicia's wrist. Her arm dropped, and he used this opportunity to step on it with all his might, breaking her left, and sword, arm. As her arm went down, her sword stabbed her left foot, leaving a bloody mark in the middle. As she moaned in pain, Lavian ran to recover her sword. Rad watched in horror, barely alive, when Vormav threw the Save the Queen with practiced precision right into Lavian's heart. It hit its mark perfectly, and Lavian went down. Vormav went over and pulled the sword from her body. Rad was slowly bleeding to death, and Alicia stood pitifully, whimpering slightly, although Agrias could tell that she was in excruciating pain. She held her sword with her right hand and pointed it at Vormav. Her left leg never touched the ground, it just hovered an inch or two above, bleeding. He looked at the pitiful sight and let out a loud, almost unearthly laugh.

"You've got spunk kid," he said shortly. "But I'm afraid your time is up. I've got to get into Orbonne and, well, you're standing in my way."

"Ajora has a will, and if my death is part of it, then so be it," Alicia whimpered, barely able to stand, much less fight.

"Everyone's death is part of Ajora's will," Vormav replied. "You three are just a speed bump." And with that, he plunged his sword towards Alicia's chest. She tried to parry it, but the combination of the pain, the incorrect sword hand, and the superiority of Vormav's skills led the parry to be weak and misplaced. Vormav's sword went right into her stomach.

"Good… will always… conquer evil…" Alicia whispered. "You… will… die…"

"No, it is because good will conquer evil that I will not die," Vormav said as the light of life in Alicia's eyes died. "I am good, and you are evil. St. Ajora will cleanse the world with her holy fire, and we will all be saved."

After his speech, he wedged his left foot in between himself and Alicia's body, and kicked. Her beautiful baby blue eyes stayed eerily open as her lifeless carcass slid off the blade. By now, Vormav could see that Rad was dead, so he picked up Alicia's cape and wiped the Save the Queen clean. Then he went back into the monastery.

Agrias looked pale and sick. "Did that… did he really do that to them?" Agrias asked.

"I'm afraid so my dear," Simon replied. "But, like I said before, it was Hashmalum that did all those horrible things, not Vormav." Agrias spit once just for good measure.

"Why did we not find the bodies?" Agrias asked, thinking that if Vormav just left them in the front lawn, someone from Ramza's troops would have noticed.

"Well," Simon replied. "The seal needed blood to open. Simply put, your friends were it. Hashmalum was going to let you kill three of his own men, but he saw this as more convenient. I'm so sorry. I was close to Alicia and Lavian too, and obviously this Rad fellow meant something to Lavian-"

"No," Agrias said shortly. "No more. I don't want to know how any more of my friends die. I would just as soon assume they were missing in action. Please Simon."

"I truly am sorry Lady Agrias," Simon said kindly. "But it had to be done. And now, we both get to go where we belong." Simon smiled one last time, and then the entire expanse glowed white.

A/N: Let me start by saying that I really like Lavian, Alicia, and Rad. Because I like them, I gave them something the game never did: a decent death scene. Besides, I liked playing off their parts a bit, since the precious little of them you see in the game is overshadowed by Agrias and Gafgarion. I also just love the image of Agrias spitting. Think about it for a moment, would you? Anyway, I like Simon too, and had fun playing around with him. Next up is my archer Masahiro O'Bannon, the third of my four 'generics' to replace Alicia, Lavian, Rad, and Boco.


	14. Chapter 13: Masahiro O'Bannon

Masahiro O'Bannon was from one of the richest and most respected families in one of the richest and most respected cities in all Ivalice: Warjilis. His father, Peter O'Bannon, was a lawyer, and seemed to have the Midas touch when it came to his cases. He never lost a one. Of course, this made his brother Vernon, very unhappy, because they had a joint firm with a few of their friends. For every case that Vernon won, Pete won two or three. Pretty soon, the other four employees of O'Bannon and O'Bannon were no more than secretaries, and Pete O'Bannon was revered not only throughout Warjilis, but throughout the whole country. Which was amazing because lawyers weren't generally used because most people settled their disputes by decapitating anyone who didn't agree with their values. His success, of course, made many people jealous, and because he had put many powerful, dangerous men and women behind bars, he had made many enemies. Among them was his jealous brother Vernon. And he got to his brother before all those powerful, dangerous criminals. He killed his brother and his brother's wife. Masahiro's parents. And then, even worse, he pinned it on Masahiro.

"I should have seen it coming," Masahiro mused. "I knew my uncle better than anyone. And my father, I wanted to warn my father, but I didn't. And then I ran."

"Which does not necessarily make you a coward my son." Masahiro froze. He saw in front of him a raven-haired woman with emerald eyes exactly like his. The simple clothes she wore couldn't hide her graceful elegance, or the fact that she came from serious money. Her smile was beautiful and kind, and she was gentle. It was his mother.

"Mommy?" Masahiro said, very childlike, his eyes glowing. He ran up to her to give her a hug, but he fell right through her wispy body. She turned back to him with a sad look on her face.

"I'm sorry Hiro," his mother apologized, using his childhood nickname. "But I'm what they call incorporeal. I can't touch, be touched, or affect anything in anyway, physically at least. But I can give you some advice. And some insight on my death."

"Yeah, I knew you had died," Masahiro said quickly. "So why are you here and not in Heaven?"

"Well, um, see, the thing about that is…" his mother started. "Your uncle sold my soul to a Lucavi to cover up our deaths. It didn't work, Lucavi double crossed him. Your brother, Jack, got his prints off the gun used to kill us, and put him in jail. Then, two years later, Ophelia found you in Barius Valley and convinced you to join her. All that time, I've been sitting in Hell, until a higher power plucked me out, and sent me after you.

"You see," she continued. "After you defeated Altima, her death created a rip in the space-time continuum, and you and your friends fell into it. I'm here to pull you out, so to speak."

Masahiro paused for a moment. "Wow, this is a lot to take in," Masahiro said thoughtfully. "Wait, what about the people waiting for us back at home?"

"Pamela is okay," his mother assured him. "Don't worry about her. She's much stronger than you think. She may be small, but she's quite tough."

"Don't I know it," Masahiro laughed, and then he raised his eyebrow. "So, why are you here? How did you get here? I didn't think you were a sorcerer."

"No, I was brought here by a higher power to save you from limbo," his mother replied. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it is my duty. And also, I get to go to Heaven because of it!"

"No no, I think I understand," Masahiro said. "But why? All I have is the enormous family fortune, and they can just get that from Jack. Why am I needed anymore? I can't even fight! I usually just get in the way!"

"What about your companionship Masahiro?" His mother tried to reason with him. "I promise you are useful. Just because you couldn't save your father and I doesn't make you useless. Your skills as an archer are unparalleled by anyone in Ivalice. And your money is negligible compared to the balance you provide to the group. Without you and Meliadoul, the entire group would be far too happy. You two help put the angst back in a whole team of goody two shoes. Without you, there'd be no one to point out the darker side of the moon, the evil side of Ivalice." Her kind eyes glowed red. "Come on Hiro, show me your dark side."

"You," Masahiro said simply, narrowing his eyes and giving this mysterious specter the evil eye. "What have you done with my mother?"

"Fool, I have done nothing with your mother," the specter imitating his mother said. Subtle changes began to occur in her body. "She's safe in Heaven with your father. But the real question is, why this perverted version of her? Do you really distrust your parents this much?"

"Well, no. I loved my parents," Masahiro said as his mother's tan skin turned slate white and her eyes blood red. Her clothes turned pitch black and tightened to fit her lithe form. She extended a ghostly hand into the darkness, and the vast expanse of shadow and it turned into the vast expanse of space. Or at least what Masahiro thought space would be like. "But I do distrust my uncle." And the spirit disappeared.

"Well," it said, appearing behind him, now in the form of his father. He was a little taller than Masahiro's mother, and his dark brown hair was slightly balding, but only slightly. He was very driven, and very good at what he did. He usually wore dark suits, and this was amplified by the spirit's dark essence. Since it was not trying to conceal it's identity this time, it started to pervert the image of his father as it did to his mother. His hair turned black, his eyes turned red, and his skin turned white. "It appears that you should distrust your uncle. After all, he did kill your parents. But were they really that innocent?"

"What?" Masahiro asked furiously. "My parents were good people, and my father was a good businessman. I will not stand here and let you soil their good name!"

"Well, then what's this?" the malevolent spirit croaked, and the stars changed to Pete O'Bannon's office. He had in his office the leader of Bart Co. himself, Bart Rudvich. "Watch this."

"So, if I give you this money," Pete said, holding a briefcase up to Rudvich's face. "You'll leave my wife and sons alone?"

"We'll see Peter," Rudvich said, smiling evilly. "We'll see. You know Peter, if you hadn't taken Vance vs. Bart Co., then none of this would have happened."

"Maybe," Pete said, pulling a gun out of his pocket. "And maybe you'll die right here and none of that will matter." He fired three rounds out of his gun, and hit Rudvich twice in the chest and once in the stomach. Rudvich just looked down at his wounds and smiled.

"Let's make sure this is just our little secret," Rudvich condescended. "Especially since your children were just released from my custody. I trust that you will not take anymore cases against my company? Good. I'm truly glad we see eye to eye, because I sincerely hate violence. Have a good life Peter." And then Rudvich left the rather terrified Pete O'Bannon in his office, and the scene froze.

"There," the spirit now imitating his old friend, Agrias' female knight Alicia, cried triumphantly, shaking her shining blonde locks. Apparently, now the spirit was trying not to distort the image of Alicia for some reason. "You see? Your parents were just like the rest of us. Evil. Demented. Willing to do anything-"

"To save his family," Masahiro finished for her. "And don't take Ali's form like that. It's insulting to her memory. Her honorable death delayed Rofel and Vormav long enough for us to find them."

The spirit frowned playfully, and then the blonde hair turned fiery red, and the facial features got more defined, and slightly less feminine. She still had her traditional Hokuten Knight armor on, and the image of Ali's friend Lavian was already being distorted by the spirit's evil. The hair turned black, the skin turned white, and the eyes turned red.

"Fine," Lavian roared, her voice deepening to demonic depths. "If you won't break, then maybe I'll break you!" It unhinged it's jaws and began to swallow Masahiro whole. He put his arms in front of his face to try and block it's attack, although he knew it was useless.

"No!"

The spirit receded, screaming. It still had taken the distorted form of Lavian. It's dark form began to growl at a white light forming behind Masahiro. A female voice was the recipient of the strange, guttural, unearthly sound.

"Stay away from my son, you ridiculously low-level specter," the voice of Masahiro's mother came from the white light. Out of the light walked a raven-haired woman with emerald eyes, dressed in pure white robes. She had a hood over her head so that her raven hair barely showed. "If you come near him again, I will completely destroy you."

"Get out of my realm, angel," the spirit spat, circling Masahiro's mother animal-like in a circle.

"This is neutral ground, demon," Masahiro's mother spat. "You have no business here. Be gone! I banish you back to the pits of Hell!" The specter screamed and glowed white. Then it vanished. "It's gone now my son. You are safe."

"So, will you take me back to Ramza?" Masahiro asked, still a little unwary because the spirit had taken the form of his mother the first time he saw it.

"I assure you, I am not a malevolent spirit taking the form of your mother," she said. "I am the genuine article. It is alright, I understand your suspicion. But it's time for you to go home. Good luck."

His mother raised her hand, and the whole scene glowed white.

A/N: Well, um, this was a little weird, but be assured that's not the last you'll see of The First- I mean the Malevolent Spirit. It's also similar to the demon from tenshi no ai's (I think) story Penitentes. Good story. And Masahiro, I think, will react better when placed with the other characters, especially his girlfriend Pamela. He's cool. Anyway, next is my hopefully good portrayal of one of my favorite Tactics villains ever: Kletian Drowa.


	15. Chapter 14: Kletian Drowa

Kletian Drowa had always had an unshakable faith in the Glabados Church, even when he was a child. His parents were atheists, and didn't believe God or the Lucavi. His older sister on the other hand, who was at least seventeen years older than him, was a devout believer in the Church, and had even decided to become an ordained priest. She was one of the best. She had almost infinite powers of white magic, and eventually applied to become a Pagan Examiner. She rose through the ranks of her class and was Christened a Pagan Examiner in the shortest time in history. She eventually rose through the ranks of Pagan Examiner to become the highest order possible: a Holy Exorcist. She handled the toughest exorcisms, the most ferocious demons, and associated with the most powerful mages in the entire world. It was her influence that got Kletian into the Temple Knights to begin with. Then, she became a Shrine Knight.

"Yes, she was a peach," came the voice of Kletian's old mentor. "Unfortunately, she was far too righteous to be of much use to us. Sorry Kletian."

"Rofel?" Kletian turned around, and saw his old mentor, Rofel Wodring, leaning against, well, Kletian couldn't tell because he was in a black, shadowy expanse. But Kletian could still recognize the turquoise cloak covering golden armor with the traditional mark of a Shrine Knight, a belt made out of solid silver, holding them together. He always seemed a little, well, fat because he wanted to give himself the edge in battle by making his opponents think he was. He used an extra few inches on either side of his armor to give the appearance that he was a little husky. Strangely enough, this was gone now, and he looked like his normal appearance of a lean but muscular slightly older man of a little less than forty. He never did seem that old to Kletian, even though there was about ten years difference between the two.

"Rofel," Kletian said, and went up to clap him on the shoulder, but his hand ghosted right through. Kletian looked up at his old mentor with curious confusion.

"Ghost," Rofel smirked. "Sorry, just feeling a little incorporeal at the moment. You can't touch me, no matter how much I would welcome the human touch."

"About your sister Kletian," Rofel said, pushing with his right elbow off of whatever it was he was leaning on and walked toward Kletian. "Mierna was really my daughter. Mierna Wodring. You were the only one I found alive in your village on that day, oh lord Ajora, it must have been twenty five years ago. You remember, don't you?"

Kletian lowered his head. He had only been four years old, but he remembered the screams of his friends and family, the fires that had ravaged their homes, the huge amount of dark power that emanated from a large black egg in the center of town, and a skinny but sinewy figure in the shadows holding a flaming sword. These were his only memories of the place he was born before Rofel had taken him and the girl who he thought was his sister in to train with Vormav. They both fought hard, and eventually, both became Shrine Knights, just at different times.

Rofel frowned. "I'm sorry about that Kletian. I really didn't mean to bring back all those painful memories, but it's necessary to get you out of limbo."

Kletian was a bit confused. "What are you talking about Rofel? Weren't we in the Graveyard of Airships? What happened to that?"

"Well, you see," Rofel began. "Not only did Ajora destroy the Graveyard, but she kinda sent you all here. You all being you and your friends. You know, Ramza Beoulve and his troops."

"Ramza is not my friend," Kletian said quickly. "And frankly, all his troops annoy me. Well, except for Vormav's daughter, what was her name- Meliadoul! She and I made friends in when we were Shrine Knights."

"Yeah, she was cute," Rofel said wistfully. "She has sort of this righteous fury when she strikes, and that's very sexy. But she's about half my age, and also my best friend's daughter, so I couldn't do anything about it. Anyway, after your friends, I mean, Ramza's troops, killed me in Orbonne, I had already sold my soul to Lucavi for the power to destroy Ramza Beoulve. And so I was being constantly tortured by demons. But someone or something found me in Hell and pulled me out to get you out of limbo. I don't know who it is exactly, but I sense a female presence.

"Anyway, what you have to do to get out of here is get over a traumatizing event from your past or find out something about your past you didn't know," Rofel continued. "And your event is the destruction of your town."

In moments, Kletian was back twenty-five years ago at the destruction of his hometown, Illusia. He was four years old again, and experiencing all of his little four-year-old feelings again. He saw all the burning buildings, the dead bodies of friends and family, smelled the stench of burning flesh, tasted his own tears as he walked through the streets again, terrified and crying. Then, a figure appeared in front of him, dressed in turquoise robes.

"That was the first time I laid eyes on you," Rofel said, cracking a tiny smirk. "I saw that you had immense magical talent, so I brought you to Gariland. And then-"

"I rose to the head of my class, trained with Reis and Beowulf and became a Shrine Knight," Kletian finished, quickly back to his old sarcastic self. "Yes, I know. You said I'm supposed to figure something out. Well, I'm waiting…"

"Be patient," Rofel cautioned and put his hand in the air with his index finger straight up and the others cascading down gradually. "You see that figure on the white horse? Over there by the tree?"

Kletian looked up by the tree he was talking about. He saw a Knight on a white horse just like Rofel indicated. He was in silver armor, and carried a silver sword. He was young, blonde, and very athletic looking.

"Now I suppose your going to tell me that's Balbanes Beoulve," Kletian droned.

"Nope," Rofel corrected, readjusting his position leaning against a large, marble pillar that was placed in the middle of Kletian's memories for seemingly no reason. "The man who you thought was Balbanes is actually his brother."

"Wait, Balbanes had a brother?" Kletian asked, surprised. But I thought that the line of Beoulve ended with him. Well, now Ramza takes over the name, but-"

"Zalbag Beoulve the first, Balbanes' father, had two sons. One, he gave every advantage possible, and one, he kept secret from the world. But both had children. Balbanes had three sons, while his brother only had one. And it is his brother's son that you must watch out for. Listen to me!" Rofel grabbed him by the shoulders. His fiery eyes burned in his head.

"Rofel, what's wrong with you?" Kletian said, his eyes wide with worry for once. Rofel was the only person who had ever cared about him, the only one who really knew him. It was hard to believe that such a good man was behaving so strangely. "You never acted like this before."

"That's because I'm evil," Rofel cackled, cracking a wicked smile on his lips. "You always were the gullible one. Balbanes' secret brother… It didn't take much to get you to believe he attacked your hometown."

Kletian looked back at the figure on the white horse, and this time, it was no longer the silver armored man. This time, his armor was gold. And his tunic was turquoise. And he carried the Save the Queen.

"You."

"No shit," Rofel said, spitting a little on Kletian's face. "Fool, I sold my soul to Lucavi long ago. Killed my wife and pretty little daughter to get the power to be useful to Hashmalum."

"You told me they were murdered by a madman," Kletian stammered in total disbelief.

"Did I lie?" Rofel said calmly. "I burned down your hometown and killed your family. It was all me. Poor, gullible Kletian."

"You monster!" Kletian said, bringing up his Mace of Zeus and bashed Rofel over the head. Then, he brought the Mace upward and hit Rofel again under the chin. The fact that Rofel was incorporeal didn't seem to matter as Kletian smacked his ex-mentor around violently with the mage's warrior staff. As for the last blow, he plowed the Mace of Zeus into Rofel's stomach and he shot backwards into one of the burning houses. It collapsed around him, and Kletian was satisfied he had finally killed the monster who burned down his village. But, just then, he rose out of the ruins of the burning building.

"Well, it's about time," Rofel crowed, not only beaten and bloody, but now he was on fire as well. It was difficult to even look at him, much less distinguish him as Rofel Wodring. "I finally sense those feelings of resentment that have been building for years. You somehow always knew that I was behind your village. Though I trained you, you always knew. Besides, I repented for all that while I was dying. It didn't help. But thanks to you, I get to go to Heaven. Thank you Kletian."

Rofel raised his right hand, and the burning village glowed white.

A/N: Another rather strange chapter. I really don't know where all this is coming from: I had such simple, predictable plans for this story. Anyway, I'm not sure if I got Kletian through the right way. I hope I did. I think I did. Except his relationship with Rofel comes off as a little gay. Never intended for that to happen. I like some of these second chance Spirit Guides though. Rofel would normally have burned in Hell for selling his soul, but now he gets into Heaven because of this mysterious being.

I promise we're almost out of limbo, we just have a few more chapters to introduce the characters. To cut down on this boringness, I've decided to combine Ramza and Alma into one chapter. I was going to give each of the characters their own, but since I dislike Alma so much, she gets stuck with her brother. Anyway, next up is Meliadoul Tingel.


	16. Chapter 15: Meliadoul Tingel

Live by the sword. Die by the sword. There is no love, there is no emotion. There is only honor. Only duty. Only God. This was the code of the Shrine Knight. This was the code that Meliadoul Tingel lived by. And it was because of this code that her deepest wish could never be fulfilled.

She was deeply in love with Ramza Beoulve. Every night, she lay awake just thinking about him, eyes closed, hands behind her head entwined in her raven hair, and a tiny smile on her face. She didn't know if Agrias suspected her feelings for Ramza, but Meliadoul suspected that Agrias had feelings for him too. Agrias and Meliadoul were pretty much best friends since they were forced to share a room since the defeat of Zalera at Limberry. She hadn't joined the party right away, she needed a couple days to deal with all the stuff she had just gone through. Elmdor's betrayal, Izlude's death, the possibility that she herself might be a Zodiac Brave. Everyone besides Agrias thought she went back to her childhood home in Ivalice to get some personal effects of her brother, but she had really gone to the relative peace and quiet of Poeskos Lake. An eerie silence, but it gave her time to think. Time to meditate. And in that time, she thought about Sagittarius and the effects it might have on her. It scared the Hell out of her, but she eventually came to understand that as long as Ramza held Sagittarius, she was probably safe. That was probably the moment that she started developing feelings for him.

"Yes sister, I believe that was it," Meliadoul heard a familiar voice resonate throughout the black expanse. "Either that or the time he saved you from Adramelk."

Meliadoul's eyes snapped open and she frantically scanned the darkness, scarcely wanting to believe her ears. It couldn't possibly be.

"Izlude?" she asked the darkness hopefully, wide-eyed and childlike. She took a step forward and the vast expanse of darkness turned gradually into her childhood home on the outskirts of Zarghidas. It was nothing more than a tiny hut with a rather large front yard that she and Izlude used to play in. The inside was just as simple as most other "houses" in Zarghidas: two rooms, one for Izlude and Meliadoul, and one for their parents, a kitchen, a living room, and an outhouse out back. They had to eat their meals in their rooms or outside like a picnic because there was no dining room. Behind their house by a few hundred yards was a large rock that she and Izlude used to play on. And behind that by a few hundred feet was a dark, dank cave where their father had found something and was supposed to be researching it. A tooth-shaped, golden colored jewel had been hidden somewhere in that cave until their father had found it. He knew there was some secret about it, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.

"Now we know that it was Leo, but he didn't figure that out right away," Izlude commented, now sitting next to Meliadoul on the rock they used to play on.

"Izlude," Meliadoul asked. "Why are you back? I thought father- excuse me, Hashmalum, killed you at Riovones." She spat when she said the Regulator's name.

"Well, sister," Izlude explained. "After Altima launched her last attack, she sent all of those present, including our old friend Kletian, through a tear in the fabric of space and now you and I are stranded in limbo unless I can help you understand some aspect of your life."

"Oh," Meliadoul said simply, not one much for words. "Why aren't you in Heaven little brother? You were a good man in your short life."

"Well," Izlude explained. "I suppose it's because I worked for a corrupt church, and helped, in my own small way, to bring Ajora back to life."

"Oh," Meliadoul said again. She was still supremely confused about this whole thing. "So, um, what is this aspect I have to understand?"

"Just watch," Izlude replied simply. They both watched their father, about ten years younger, walk into the cave with Leo in it. "And fast forward…" Everything moved in fast motion, and Meliadoul felt like she was going to be sick.

"So, this is it? This is how father got Leo?" Meliadoul asked tentatively. "I always figured that Funeral gave it to him, you know, because this was all the High Priest's plot."

"Au contraire, my dear sister," Izlude replied. "Poor Funeral was a mere puppet. Hashmalum was the puppeteer behind the entire play. You just need to understand why it was father that he chose to inhabit.

The scene changed once again to the front of the house. Meliadoul and Izlude were playing quietly in the front yard while their mother, Ursula Tingel, watched them while they played. Their father was training in the backyard. Meliadoul's heart sank as she realized what day this must have to be. Sure enough, she saw a man in turquoise robes and a belt made of silver. He brandished what she now knew to be a Save the Queen sword. It was Rofel Wodring.

"Why don't I remember that Rofel attacked our house?" Meliadoul asked her brother. "I must have been at least nine years old, old enough to remember something like this."

"Well, that was one of the court mages in Murond," her brother replied. "I believe his name was Zalmo Rusnada. He erased our memories of Rofel from this memory. It was much easier than erasing the memory itself. That is why you and I never really trusted Rofel."

"Ah," Meliadoul replied. "That makes sense."

"Wait, they're fighting now," Izlude shushed her, waving his hand backwards in her direction. "Stay quiet."

Rofel walked up past the young Izlude and put his hand on his head and ruffled his hair, and young Izlude cried. His sister tried to comfort him by holding him a little, and he stopped. Rofel smiled that sadistic smile of his and continued walking over to their mother. The children looked back at his troops. There were about a dozen or so of them, and they all stood perfectly still. Behind the last soldier they could see a young boy with chocolate colored hair looking fearfully out from behind his hiding place. Young Meliadoul's gaze hovered on this young boy that she now assumed was Kletian.

"Ursula, how nice to see you again," Rofel said, his dry voice dripping with sarcasm. "How's the family? Not really receptive to the human touch are they?"

"No, they are," their mother said, returning the honeyed sarcasm Rofel had shown her. "If a human had touched them that is."

"Still the same girl you were when you married Vormav aren't you," Rofel said, and he followed that statement with an unholy chuckle. The two Tingel children winced. By now, Izlude was holding onto his older sister for dear life. "But speaking of the devil, where is your husband? He should be out here watching his two little devil spawn."

"Don't ever refer to my children as devil spawn, you evil bastard," Vormav said from the side of the house. "Now get off my property or I will make you leave."

"Glenn, take young master Drowa back home," Rofel said over his shoulder, and one of the knights pulled the young boy up onto a golden chocobo, and they rode off down the path back to the main city of Zarghidas. The young children had had enough and ran down over to their rock and hid behind it. "Now, my dear Vormav, we are all alone. Well, not all alone, but alone enough."

"Bastard!" Vormav gripped his own Save the Queen and lunged at Rofel. With inhuman speed, Rofel brought his sword up and knocked Vormav's strike to his right. He elbowed Vormav in the back, and he went down like a sack of potatoes.

"Come on, Tingel," Rofel crowed. "You'll have to do better than that! It's just me fighting you. I'm not even being helped. A member of Sir Orlandu's famed Angel Knights shouldn't even break a sweat!" Vormav got up again, wiped the blood off his lip, and struck with practiced precision at Rofel's head. Rofel easily parried this blow too. Now he seemed to be getting more serious because he used his sword on his next attack. He formed an uppercut with his sword and hit Vormav under the chin with the hilt. Then, he sliced a thin, red wound through his stomach. Vormav cried out and staggered back. Rofel used some of his own swordskills to disarm Vormav, and then, he used Shellbust Stab and impaled him onto the wall of his own house.

Then, all Hell broke loose. Ursula jumped in the battle with some powerful Geomancy, and the other warriors overwhelmed her and took her away. Vormav could only watch as one of the knights strapped her to a chocobo and rode away. Then the other knights turned on him. Vormav tried to render them defenseless with his Hellcry Punch, but there were simply too many, and he was simply too weak. He killed one or two before Rofel called them all off.

"He's mine boys," Rofel said. He called away the curved blade of magic from Vormav's stomach. "Not so tough now are we Tingel? Grab the children."

Vormav tried to move, but the pain was too great. He knew he was dying. Then, something extraordinary happened. The stone in his pocket began to talk.

"Holder of the Holy Stone... Promise me.…" it said, and Vormav could see his daughter fighting bravely to try and keep the knights away from her beloved younger brother. "Your spirit will unite with my flesh to live forever."

"But… how…" Vormav managed to choke out through all the blood he had swallowed.

"Your despair and resentment called me…" the stone continued, glowing a bright golden color. "Now promise…"

"Give me the strength… to save… my family…" Vormav said as he felt the last breath of life leave his body. The stone rose out of his pocket and floated above him, giving off that golden glow the entire time. The light around him started to flash, and spirits and lights began to leave the stone and enter his cold, near-death body. Rofel cracked a slight, but still incredibly sadistic smile.

"Good," he said shortly, and teleported out of the battle, probably back to Murond. Meanwhile, Vormav had transformed into a gigantic lion-like creature in purple robes. His massive claws raked through the poor soldiers left behind terrorizing his children. He picked one up in his right hand, growled at him, and then with his left hand ripped out his ribcage and threw it at the others. Incredibly disheartened, the few that were left ran. Fast. But the Regulator was faster, stronger, and better. He grabbed a soldier in each hand, and bit their heads off and spit them back at the one lone monk left over. The soldier started to back into the cave where the Holy Stone was found. The lion demon picked up Meliadoul and Izlude's rock with his superhuman strength, and slammed it down on top of the poor monk. A sickening crunch was heard as he was crushed to death.

Another flash of light lit up the air as the demon transformed back into Vormav. But this time, there was something different about him. Something older, more sinister. As if the demon was still standing there, but in the form of Vormav Tingel. Of course, his two children picked up on this right away.

"Daddy?" his daughter piped up from her hiding place behind her house. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and her brother was practically catatonic. "Where'd they take mommy?"

"That's exactly what I intend to find out," Vormav said, his voice different, deeper. He began to walk slowly away, not waiting for his two children. The young Meliadoul quickly grabbed her brother by the arm and caught up with her father.

"Where did they take our mother?" Meliadoul asked her brother after the initial horror of the sight she had just witnessed had worn away. "If you know, then tell me. That must be the aspect of my life: finding our mother."

"No," Izlude corrected. "Don't you see yet? You had to realize that everything Father did, he did for us. He gave up his own soul so we could live."

"And then killed you later on," Meliadoul pointed out. "Don't forget about that little brother. God, that bastard Hashmalum." She spat on the ground like she was taught when she had to swear.

"But still, I would like to know where Mother is," Meliadoul continued. "Please. I've heard that all the thoughts of the living are revealed to the dead. Help me find her."

"I'm so sorry Meliadoul," Izlude replied. "I can't do that. But, you will meet her soon enough, I promise you that. Just hold out a little longer. And, when you do meet her, tell mother that I love her."

"Okay little brother," Meliadoul replied blinking the tears away. "I will. Have a good time up in Heaven."

"Oh god, you have no idea how much I wish I could give you a hug goodbye Melly," Izlude said, apparently crying too. He sniffed, and Meliadoul smiled. "But we'll see each other again someday. I promise.

Then the whole place glowed white.

A/N: Well, what do you think? I always loved Meliadoul. I mean, she's got the whole guilt trip going for her, and her crazy family history is always fun to play off of. Well, next is the final 'generic' Ophelia Kaishou.


	17. Chapter 16: Ophelia Kaishou

Of all the students that graduated from Gariland Magic Academy, none were nearly as proficient as Ophelia Kaishou. She belonged to one of the most prominent families in Igros, the Kaishous. Robert Kaishou, her father, was a very powerful and very important trader. His company, Levine Imports and Exports, was making just as much money, if not more than, as Bart Co. Obviously, this made Rudvich jealous, so he never really liked the Kaishous.

Ophelia's home life was fairly standard until she was ten. She had two parents, but was an only child, so she got whatever she wanted. Strangely enough, she still wasn't spoiled. She was a normal little child. Until one day, her mother became gravely ill with pneumonia. Her mother was an old friend of her fathers, and they were childhood sweethearts. They had a falling out about twelve years before Ophelia was born, Ophelia never really knew what it was over.

Her mother was a graduate of Gariland, and the chief reason Robert sent her daughter there. She was a master archer, and her name was Audra Raines. She was a beautiful woman with chestnut brown hair and baby blue eyes, and she seemed mismatched with the sometimes gruff-looking Robert Kaishou. As she was dying, she told Ophelia to be good, and study hard.

The death of Audra hit both Robert and Ophelia very hard. Ophelia noticed that her father was never quite the same after her mother's death. He was cold and distant, and he never really saw Ophelia as something worth keeping because she was his daughter instead of his son. He wanted to have a son he could be proud of. A knight. Ophelia tried as hard as she could to become a squire, but she ended up failing. She was a mage, whether she wanted to admit it or not, and it destroyed her father. That is why she tried so hard to master every job class, and she eventually succeeded, but it still didn't make her father proud.

Ophelia sighed and pushed her golden hair out of her face. She was pretty in the girl next door sense. Plain, but beautiful. She was rather tall for a girl, and towered over most of the other girls in the group, except the masculine Agrias. She was a Mediator, and this lead her to be a fairly outgoing person. She despised the nauseating pink Mediator dress, so she often just wore the armor of a knight. She felt that dresses were a constant symbol of how she was a disappointment to her father, so she never wore them.

She considered herself a nice, easy-going person. She had been told that she was obsessive compulsive, but she disagreed. She had been friends with Ramza, Alma, Delita, and Kylie for years, and it was because of them that she decided to attend Gariland.

"Yes, you did have some good times in school, didn't you," she heard a vaguely familiar voice echo through her head. "But then again, you had friends. I didn't even have allies."

"Who is that?" Ophelia turned her head, her light voice echoing back at her and she realized how terrified she sounded. "Show yourself! I'm not afraid of you!"

"Nor I of you Opie," the voice said, using her nickname, and suddenly a body appeared to match the vaguely familiar voice. Two light brown leather boots stepped out of the shadows, followed by lightly armored leather leggings that betrayed a will to fight but had no resources to do so. Covering his chest was a dark blue leather chest plate with the crest of the Death Corps on it. Leather gloves matching the boots unclasped a forest green cape that came standard with a soldier of the Death Corps. And the mysterious sandy-haired man handed his cape to Ophelia silently, and she was very confused. "But then again, we are family."

"Wait, I think I remember you," Ophelia said slowly, trying to put his face with a name. "Lenalia Plateau… right? And the Thieves Fort?"The knight put his face in hand and sighed.

"Not even close," he said, exasperated. "That was Miluda. She was a woman, and I'm clearly a man. Try Fort Zeakden. Right before Teta's death. The explosion. That was all me."

"Golagros," Ophelia finally remembered, and she had a flashback to the moments before Golagros' death. Delita had killed Algus… no, killed was much to clean a word for what Delita had done to him. It was closer to mutilated. Teta and Algus were both dead. People whom Ophelia had known and grown close to. Delita was cradling his sisters dead body and crying, tearless. Ramza walked over to him, and Ophelia, Kylie, David, and Dorothy stood down on the bottom of the fort, waiting for them.

"…Delita," Ramza said quietly, watching his best friend crying. Suddenly, the whole fort started to quake. Golagros must have set off the explosives inside the fort. "What was that? An explosion? Delita, it's dangerous! Come over here, quick!" But Delita didn't move. He still cradled Teta's lifeless body. Kylie, David, and Dorothy all ran for it, but Ophelia stayed behind. She couldn't just leave Ramza there.

"Delita!" Ramza screamed as the entire fort went up in flames. The explosion knocked him backwards, and knocked Ophelia off her feet. Ramza was knocked unconscious, but Ophelia was not. She got to her feet, rather painfully, and stretched her hands out over the wounded Ramza and began muttering the incantation for Cure.

"You saved his life there," Golagros commented. "Does he know that?"

"Don't you say anything to Ramza," Ophelia snapped. "He doesn't need to know about that. I've saved his life on many other occasions, as has every member of the team, including Rafa. Don't tell him anything."

"Is that really what you're afraid of?" Golagros asked. "Him knowing you saved his life? Or is it something else, something about your heritage? Like your relationship to me perhaps."

"If he knew I was a half-commoner," Ophelia said. "If they all knew, they would never look at me the same. Kylie, Ramza, Agrias, Mel, they would all think of me differently."

"What about Reis, Strawberry, Mustadio, and all the other commoners that joined his group?" Golagros asked her. "They're commoners too. And Mustadio is one of Ramza's best friends now."

"I know, but he knew me as a noble," Ophelia said. "And he'll tell the entire group and then word will spread that the lone Kaishou child is a commie bastard, and think of the shame it will bring to my family."

"You mean your irritable, overbearing father who thinks you're worthless because you're a woman?" Golagros relied.

"No," Ophelia replied annoyed. "My dead mother who I love and respect very much. Think of what it would mean to the Kaishou name if everyone found out that my father had an affair with a prostitute and got her pregnant."

"My mother gave up that life when she had me," Golagros defended, hurt that she was calling his mother a whore. She was of course, but she was reformed. "Never insult my mother like that. If you do I will kill you."

"How? You're incorporeal!" Ophelia threatened. "What could you possibly do to me?"

"Well, I could do this," he said, and Ophelia felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her head. She grabbed her head and screamed in excruciating pain. She collapsed to the ground and started to cry a little. "Is that proof enough for you?"

"Fine," Ophelia replied, rubbing the side of her head. "But please, don't tell the others."

"I have to tell them," Golagros replied. "They have to know your past. There is no commoner blood in you anyway, just a bastard brother! Why are you being so stubborn?" Ophelia sighed and looked sad.

"Do you really want to know?" Ophelia asked. "The truth is never pretty, and this time it's embarrassing too."

"Ophelia," Golagros replied. "Anything that you can say to help me understand you will be much appreciated." Ophelia took a deep sigh and then began to speak again.

"It's my boyfriend, Daniel," Ophelia replied. "He comes from a long line of noble blood, almost as long as the Beoulves, and he has a deep, passionate hate for commoners. He won't even look at Mustadio. He treats Strawberry and Reis like gutter trash. If he ever found out that I had a commoner brother, he'd leave me, and I don't think I can deal with that."

Daniel's picture came into her mind as she thought about him. He was tall, much taller than all the other members of Ramza's troops, about six foot tall. Brown hair, brown eyes, if he wasn't so insanely muscular he would look rather plain. He wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but she still loved him all the same. They met a few years ago, during the attack on the Lionel Gates in which Ramza dueled Gafgarion. He tried to kill her, and they bound him to interrogate him for information on the forces inside, but they found out that all the Lionel troops had either been sent to a different base or gone on leave. It was as if Draclau wanted to speak to them alone.

Ophelia never told anyone else in Ramza's group about this, but she didn't believe most of the original Zodiac Hosts were evil. Draclau just wanted power, Weigraf wanted to avenge Miluda, Elmdor was dead before they took his body, Elibidis was clinically insane and could not have known the consequences of his actions, Vormav just wanted to save his family. She believed that Dycedarg was evil after she discovered that he killed Balbanes and Zalbag.

"Well," Golagros replied after thinking for a while. "If he's a good man, he won't care if you've got a dirty commie for a brother or not, right?"

"I don't want to take that chance," Ophelia said quietly, a single tear running down her cheek. "Please Golagros, don't tell anyone."

"What can I do?" Golagros replied. "I'm incorporeal." Ophelia laughed.

"Okay, I'll tell them," Ophelia consented. "If you promise that that's the only embarrassing secret you'll reveal about me."

"I promise," Golagros laughed. "So when you get back, tell them about me. If you don't I'll hunt you down and tell everyone."

Golagros extended his hand and the whole area turned white.

A/N: Do you think Ophelia will reveal her secret? I know, this chapter didn't quite have the same effect as the others because you don't know Ophelia, but I promise I will spend more time on the 'generics' later on. They will be better. Next up is the last chapter in limbo, Ramza and Alma.


	18. Chapter 17: Ramza and Alma Beoulve

Ramza Beoulve awoke in a small straw mattress in Gariland Academy. He opened his eyes and spied his old roommate David across the way. A young squire with short, dark hair, and he was a fairly tall young man. He was relatively nice, if you didn't piss him off too much. He never really liked using weapons of any kind, and preferred to fight with his bare hands as a Monk. His girlfriend was really nice. Her name was Kylie Masters. He would never admit it to his girlfriend, Dorothy, but he thought she was so cute. Dirty blonde hair, playful green eyes, and she looked so good in that standard issue Squire's uniform. Everybody thought he had a thing for her, including jealous Dorothy, but he and Kylie knew better.

He looked over at where the sleeping form of his roommate should be, he saw the sleeping form of his sister, Alma. He wondered what was going on, and he got up to look at her. He shook her to wake her up, and she snapped quickly out of her sleep.

"Ramza, where are we?" she asked, looking around the room.

"This is my old room from when I was in Gariland," Ramza replied, also looking around at the subtle differences that he remembered. Nothing big, just something like a misplaced crack in the ceiling over his bed that Ramza used to stare at when he was trying to sleep at night, or the smell of the room, not like cinnamon, a cleaner to cover up the smell of alcohol and vomit because David was a big partier, but more like apple cider. It was strange.

"Let's just get out of here," Alma said to her brother, and moved for the door, but as soon as she opened it and walked through, she found herself at the back entrance that went outside to the training area. Still inside Ramza's old dorm room. "Ramza, what's going on?"

"I don't know Alma," Ramza said, thinking intensely for a few moments before noticing another person in the room. He quickly turned around to face this person, and immediately recognized him. The dark brown leather armor, a dark brown leather hat, a black-brown beard extending from his chin down past his gray shoulder plates and stopped just at his chest. He carried the Blood Sword tightly in his big hands.

"Gaff," Ramza spat, looking with contempt at the man he once revered. "What are you doing back you son of a bitch? I thought we killed you at Lionel."

"You did, you did," Gafgarion said, pulling apart his leather chest plate to show Ramza the scar where his sword pierced his chest. "I was killed, and because of my life choices, I wasn't sent to Heaven. But this is my chance to go there, if you two can realize something."

"Like what?" Alma asked wide-eyed and totally believing every word Gafgarion said. She had always been a naïve person, and this really got her into trouble sometimes.

"Well, that I'm not at liberty to say out loud yet," Gafgarion said, setting the Blood Sword down on the table in front of Alma and clipping his leather chest plate back together. She looked at it with a mixture of terror and longing. "But I do have to show you this."

The scene around them switched suddenly to Zaland Fort City, the place where, if Ramza remembered correctly, they first met Mustadio. Walking up the steps that led to the main fort were three men and two women. One of the men, who resembled Gafgarion and could very well be a younger version of him, was holding hands with one of the women. She was rather pretty, she had dark hair and dark eyes, and her dress was a deep forest green and hugged her lithe form quite nicely. It started directly underneath her shoulders, and went down to about her ankles, so you could see the silver shoes she was wearing.

"Her name was Claudia," Gafgarion said wistfully. "And we were stationed together in the Touten Knights. This, mind you, was before I was leader. We grew very close, as you can see, and I think we loved each other. She was an engineer, although I know she doesn't look it."

"Who are the other three people?" Alma asked, always asking questions as usual.

"Well, the woman is Elvira Grey, before she became queen of course," Gafgarion replied. "Shortly after this moment, she left the Touten and married Denamunda. That priest is Zalmo Rusnada, and the one with the big sword is Mesdoram Elmdor. They aren't important for the purposes of this demonstration. What is important is that girl, Claudia. Watch."

Claudia and Gafgarion waved goodbye to the other members of the Touten and walked into a small hut that must have been their home. It was light brown, and pretty standard. They must have lived in the main fort because they were sent to defend it, or so Ramza guessed. The scene fast forwarded itself to later that night, or so Ramza assumed. Then, out of nowhere, about a half dozen or so knights with the crest of the Shrine Knights came and surrounded the house, and the figure in the purple robes that Ramza recognized as Vormav knocked on their door.

"What do you want Zalmo," Gafgarion said as he opened the door. "I already paid- who are you?"

"I'm Vormav Tingel," Vormav said in that dripping poison voice. His silver tongue had deceived many brave and noble warriors and mages to work for the Temple Knights. "And I have a proposition for you, my dear Gaff."

"I'm listening," Gafgarion replied, and Claudia appeared at the doorway, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She came up to the door and looked around at the aging Shrine Knight and his entourage.

"Gaff," she asked, obviously deeply afraid all of a sudden. "What's going on? Who are these men?"

"My dear girl, we are nothing more that your boyfriend's colleagues," Vormav answered silkily. "And we merely wish to discuss a business deal with him."

"If you want to hire the Touten Knights," Claudia said, and then yawned. "You'll have to come to our office during business hours. Or at least sometime when we're not fast asleep."

"It is not the Touten Knights I want," Vormav went on. "It's merely Gaff. I will have the others soon enough. Gaff, I want to make you a deal. I want you to work for me, as a Temple Knight. If you accept, you will of course have a much higher salary, and your abilities will be used instead of being squandered on a mercenary knight troupe. So, what do you say Gaff? Work for me, or waste your life?"

"Hell yes I'll work for you," Gafgarion said, and gave his ecstatic lover a hug. "When can I start?"

"Right now," Vormav smiled, and looked at Claudia. "There's someone who's been a thorn in our sides for years, and she's a member of the Touten Knights, so I assume you know her. She's the sole reason that the Touten are so successful. She's their engineer." All the blood drained from Claudia's face.

"You want me to kill Claudia?" Gafgarion asked, mortified. "I can't do that to her!"

Vormav looked sad. "That's too bad Gaff," he sighed. "And you would have been such a good ally. Kill them both!" And he teleported away.

The knights that were stationed around his house attacked. Claudia pulled out her Blast Gun and began to fire. She electrocuted one of the knights, but more kept coming. Meanwhile, Gafgarion was fighting three knights at once. He managed to knock them back with the Blood Sword, then he concentrated hard, and a red orb appeared above his head. One of the Knights looked terrified as a red crystal erupted from the ground, encasing him in it and sapping his life force. Gafgarion was healed as the knight was killed. The other two were joined by one of the other knights as the attacked him relentlessly. Claudia was still having trouble handling two. She shot another one, but due to the fickleness of the Blast Gun, it summoned a low level spell and the knight was only slightly wounded. Gafgarion was pinned to the wall as he watched those two knights pinned his love to the wall with their swords. They took the gun out of her hand and she looked at Gafgarion and said her last words.

"Gaff, I love you."

And then one of the knights shot her between the eyes, and she died. This threw Gafgarion into a murderous rage, and he cried out and summoned another red crystal underneath the center knight that was holding him, and trapped him in the crystal with an expression of horror and pain on his face. Then he took his Blood Sword and decapitated the knight on the left before he even had time to look at his fallen comrade. The two knights that killed Claudia raced over to save their lone companion, but he had already fallen to a third red crystal. Gafgarion ran over to them, and knocked their swords out of their hands. He stabbed one in the head as the other ran for his sword. Gafgarion pulled the Blood Sword out of the knight and picked up his discarded sword, then he threw it at the knight running away, for he recognized this as the one who had shot his beloved Claudia. The sword hit him in the shoulder, and he dropped like a rock. He was the one that Claudia had wounded his left arm, and Gafgarion had rendered the right one useless. He walked over to the Temple Knight, picked him up by the collar of his cape and looked him straight in the eyes.

"You bastard," he whispered so quietly it was barely audible as he moved his grip to the knight's neck and began to squeeze with all his might. The shiny glove on his hand helped quite a bit. "You took my life from me, now I'm going to take your life from you." The knight struggled more, but after a while the struggling decreased as the life was choked out of him, and soon it stopped completely.

"Well, done Gafgarion," Vormav's voice resounded through the tiny house. "I knew you had it in you."

"And that's why I turned evil," the present Gafgarion said to Ramza and Alma.

"Oh God," Alma choked out. She had started crying when Claudia died. "That's horrible. Vormav is such a bad person."

"Yeah, yeah, real sad," Ramza said, still skeptical. "But how do I know you're not just making this up?"

"Because I don't have that kind of power," Gafgarion replied. "But I do know who does. Ask your friends. One of them is responsible for all this limbo nonsense. But I'm not complaining, I get to go to Heaven."

"So why are we here?" Alma asked.

"Well, I'll put this simply," Gafgarion said. "Altima killed you all. Your team is dead, as is Kletian. I'm here to make sure it's not permanent."

"I'm dead?" Alma said, and the waterworks started again.

"But, now we get to go back to Ivalice right?" Ramza asked, and Gafgarion nodded. "And the others, they got the same deal right?"

"I don't know," Gafgarion said. "But I do know that Ivalice needs you two, and you'll be there when it does."

Gafgarion raised his hand and Zaland Fort City turned white.

A/N: As you can probably tell, I don't really like Ramza or Alma. They're overdeveloped. Too much of the game is about them. I had fun delving into Gafgarion's past and making him a tragic hero. Anyway, next up is the rest of my 'generics' that will play a role, some crucial, some not so much, in the rest of the story.And then the REAL story begins. Finally.


	19. Chapter 18: Dungeon Treasure

Pamela Vance was standing on a port in Warjilis, waiting for the boat carrying Gene Weston, Luna Renk, Daniel Rayne, and Rush Broyer to get back from the Deep Dungeon. Why Deep Dungeon? It was a hunch of Aeris's. They went there to look for any clues on the location of their loved ones. The stubborn strand of straw-yellow hair that always fell into her face did so again, and she blew it out of the way and took her gloves off as she attempted to put it back in her loose ponytail. She set the Artemis Bow on the ground in front of her next to her gloves as she tried to fix her hair.

"The hair again Pam?" Pamela heard a voice to her left, and, still fixing her hair, turned around and saw her older sister Christine. She had forgone the traditional 'armor' of a Monk and wore just the sea green spandex. Pamela and her sister had a special bond that came from a great tragedy they both shared. When they were very young, their village was attacked by bandits, and they were the only survivors. Then, a clan of Bull Demons found Pamela and took her away. She cried for days. She was separated from her beloved sister. The Bull Demons were relatively kind to her, for monsters anyway, and they gave her food and shelter. The real problem came when she grew older and matured a little bit. The Bull Demons started to rape her, and they did so for years until she had many wounds, both physically and mentally. Then, she encountered Ramza and his troupe, and Ophelia bravely talked her into joining. By that time, she was sixteen and had been with the Bull Demons since she was two, so that was the only life she knew. She was feral and dangerous. Fortunately, Ramza had apparently encountered this before, and he sent Masahiro, his archer, to work with her.

He started by defeating her in battle, and as she lay wounded, he started to restrain her. Then he did something she did not expect: he began to dress her wounds. Pamela remembered how much this confused her, and she wanted to find out more about this powerful, strange man. This led her to accept being trained to walk upright, eat like a human being, cook her food, dress herself, and many other tasks that most people take knowing how to do for granted. After about half a year, she was almost completely cured of her crippling mental wounds. This was when she began to fall in love with Masahiro. So she invited him into the woods, and they had a picnic, and shared their first kiss. This was where all the other fears of her regressing to her feral state and going berserk and attacking everyone were assuaged. What little was left of her animal self melted away during that moment. She was cured completely.

Apparently, a similar thing had happened with her sister a year or so before, and Malak was the one who fixed her. And, like her little sister, Christine had developed a crush on the person who treated her. Her problem was that she was very masculine, and didn't get along well with other women. This led her to being 'just one of the guys', which created a problem for her and Malak. So she decided to leave and set up a center for people with situations similar to the Vance sisters' problems in Bervenia.

'I was surprised myself at the number of patients she has,' Pamela thought. 'There were so many orphans during the Fifty Years War, and most of them got picked up by some sort of monster or other. And of course there are the victims of human rape.' Pamela would never admit it to her sister, but she was jealous of how successful she was. Pamela lived here in Warjilis with Masahiro's brother Jack.

The O'Bannon family was incredibly wealthy, and Pamela felt bad just living in their huge mansion. True, she was employed as a cook, but she knew that it was just a formality and that Jack would let her stay even if she couldn't cook. That was the one thing she was actually good at: her cooking rivaled the best restaurants in the world. She apparently had this hidden talent all these years. And she actually enjoyed it. But Jack had given all his employees, he was not the type to use the word 'servant', the day off because he was waiting here for news of his brother.

Jack was very, well, the only word Pamela could think of to describe him was average. He was kind of tall, though not as tall as his younger brother Masahiro, kind of muscular, and had the trademark O'Bannon black hair and green eyes. He was very business oriented, and he was a big reason why the O'Bannon fortune was so big. His father, of course, had started it, but Jack had made it a fortune.

He was here, of course, and he stood on the dock a couple feet away from her. He was next to his sister, Melissa. She was well endowed, both physically and financially. She also had the trademark O'Bannon look, lanky with black hair and green eyes. But she was lanky in an attractive way, like her brother Masahiro. She had a favorite outfit, a maroon colored dress with what Pamela considered to be far too much cleavage. Other than that, it was fairly conservative, covering her arms and legs down to her high heels and puffing out at the shoulders. She was very fashionable, but all she did was spend all her brothers' money. Even Masahiro sent back some of the pelts that Ramza and his team poached to his brother, who got them skinned and sold them to a fur shop. This got Jack a number of rare collectable weapons, like the Madlemgen, which he gave to Olan.

Olan Durai was Orlandu's adopted son. No one really knew who his father was. He was a wizard of the Nanten Knights, and he had a black ponytail which most found to be a bit childish. He wore a dark blue uniform with a tannish cape for concealing himself, just in case. Over time, he had developed feelings for the wizard from the church aiding Delita, Balmafula Lanando. Which started a very strange love triangle between Olan, Balmafula, and King Delita, who Balmafula had strong feelings for.

Balmafula was a devoted sorceress of the Glabados Church. Delita was the one who taught her about the corruption of the Church and opened her eyes to the true Ajora. She had a blonde ponytail held together by a red hair tie. She had a brown shirt, sleeveless and starting under her shoulders and going down to her bellybutton and a brown miniskirt, and a pair of boots to match. Her cape however, was bright green. What this fascination with capes was, Pamela would never understand. She and Olan were standing not far away from Jack and Melissa.

Sitting at the end of the dock, with their feet dangling in the water, were Ramza's old friends David and Dorothy. Dorothy was proficient as an Archer, but she preferred the silver armor and periwinkle headband of a Squire. David was a Monk through and through. There was a time when David was Ramza's best friend and roommate. He was a party boy, and Dorothy was a goody-goody. Normally, these two wouldn't have given each other the time of day, but since Kylie broke up with David after Fort Zeakden, and Ramza broke up with Dorothy not much later, they were there to console each other. Their relationship came about when Ramza started dating Kylie, and they decided to fake date to make him jealous. But they realized that they really loved each other, after a while, and decided to stay together even after Ramza and Kylie broke up.

Further up the dock, there was a simple flower girl from Zarghidas dressed in a brown dress with a white bow tied on the front. She had light brown hair, and kept it covered with a black hood laced with white fabric. She always carried around a basket of flowers, which she sold for one gil apiece. Since this was not going to generate nearly enough money to pay off her thirty thousand gil debt, so thieves came after her. Cloud saved her life and killed the thieves, but the problem still existed. So Masahiro promised her that if she ever got into financial trouble again, he would help bail her out. She was a real sweetheart, but Cloud refused to be with her for some reason, he never said what it was exactly.

Standing next to Aeris was Mustadio's father, Besrodio. He wore fairly plain clothes, and had to walk with a cane because of some problem with his right leg. He was an accomplished engineer, and he fixed things. He was the chief repairman for Worker 8. According to Mustadio, he was devastated by the death of his wife, Angela, and never quite recovered. He carried himself with pride though, and he had the look of an old man, even though he was only in his mid forties.

The another of the people on the docks that morning were an old man, Gene's grandfather, Marcus Weston. He was old, and he wore an odd jacket made entirely of chocobo feathers. His pants, however, were simply normal brown fabric. His balding gray hair sat neatly atop his head, and he was an eccentric old man. He ran the Chocobo Ranch in Barius Hill, which was where Ramza sent all of Boco's children when she laid eggs. He loved chocobos, and Gene was his assistant.

Next to Marcus was another of Ramza's oldest friends, but this one wasn't human. He was a golden chocobo named Boco. Golden, not yellow. Christine had made that mistake once, and she had the bite marks on her arm to prove it. Ever since that moment they met in Araguay Woods, Ramza and Boco had become good friends. When it was time to get rid of someone from the troupe just so they wouldn't be detected as easily, it was with a heavy heart that Ramza sent Boco into the wild at Barius Hill. A few days later, Boco came back, and led Ramza to the Chocobo Ranch run by Marcus. So ever since then, Ramza has sent all his chocobos to Marcus instead of releasing them into the wild.

Standing next to Marcus and Boco was Aeris's mother, Elmyra. Elmyra was a kindly old woman who wasn't Aeris's real mother, but had taken care of her ever since she was very small. She had brown hair, and kept it neatly in a bun on the top of her head. She wore a green dress with a white apron over it. Her brown sensible shoes showed that she was a firm but kind woman who had a lot of mothering left in her.

As Pamela waited for the ship to return, she looked out at the lighthouse that served as the cover for the Deep Dungeon. Ramza had gone in there, why no one knew, maybe for the treasure, and they had come out with a good haul. Her favorite was the Yoichi Bow. Masahiro had let her try it out once. They were alone and training in the woods, and he got behind her and grabbed her hands and placed them correctly on the bow. By then they were kissing and, needless to say, they didn't shoot many arrows that day. Pamela giggled.

Suddenly, the ship appeared out of the fog surrounding the lighthouse. There were no other ships scheduled to return that day, so she assumed this was the one carrying their four friends. Everyone got up, especially David and Dorothy since their feet were right where the boat was going to pull in, and they gathered in a big group to wait for the ship to dock.

First off the boat was the only Oracle in the group: Luna. She was a blonde in every sense of the word, and well endowed too. And she never let anyone forget it. She wore low cut dresses, and had even altered her Oracle outfit to show off more of her body. She was a huge flirt, but Pamela sensed that she was playing for the other team, or so to speak. Pamela could see why she got such a wide response, from both men and women, but she didn't have to make such a big deal out of it.

Next out was Gene Weston, Marcus' grandson. His robes were like an Oracle's robes with the obvious difference of the crest of the Chocobo Ranch on one of the bright blue lapels. Pamela never really liked him. He was a nice boy, if you got him to like you. Otherwise, you got hit with the icy chill of his sarcasm. His blatant disregard for anyone's feelings, including his own grandfather, had become almost legendary in the circles around Lionel, the premier place of business for the Chocobo Ranch. Pamela sensed that he secretly harbored feelings for Ophelia, but was afraid to make a move because of her psychopath, muscle-for-brains boyfriend.

'Speak of the devil,' Pamela thought as Dan, which is what they called him for short, got off the boat. Brown hair, brown eyes, he was normal in that sense. But he was taller than everyone else in the group, built like a tank, and unfortunately rather dull. He was also an extreme racist, which led him not to like Rafa and Malak. He also hated commoners, or 'commies' as he called them, and wouldn't speak to Pamela or anyone else that wasn't nobly born. He was formerly a member of the Lionel Knights that attacked them during the final showdown with Gafgarion. He was pretty evil in Pamela's opinion. What Ophelia sees in him, Pamela felt she would never know.

After Dan came the only person on the boat that Pamela actually got along with: Rush Broyer. He was a Monk, and wore its traditional blue vest with red, baggy pants and a matching blue headband. He fought, obviously, with his bare hands. He was Strawberry's boyfriend, and they were so cute together. He used to work for Zalmo Rusnada, the Pagan Examiner from Murond, but Ophelia persuaded him to join Ramza. Now the two were happily married. He was really a nice guy, but sometimes he could be a little naïve, just like his wife.

"Well, did you find them?" Christine asked in her light but masculine voice. "Was Aeris wrong?"

"If the fates chose to give me that vision," Aeris said, her voice resonating clear as a bell. "I can't help that. All I know is that we were supposed to find someone or something there."

"Well, we found something all right," Rush said, and he pulled a small, perfectly circular mirror out of his pocket. It was perfectly still, not a single ripple on the surface. Around the glass was set a row of pearls, each perfectly spaced apart. It was beautiful.

"What is it?" Pamela asked, transfixed by the strange object.

"Well, whatever it is," Luna said brightly. "It's obviously very important and powerful, since it was hidden deep in the Deep Dungeon."

"What I don't understand," David chimed in. "Is why we didn't find it on our first trip to Deep Dungeon. Was it hidden, or was it just lying around in plain view?"

"Well, I didn't see it personally," Dan said and pointed to Luna. "It was commie over here."

"I have a name," she said snottily. "But yeah, I saw the mirror and nobody else did. Maybe we should go back to Jack's house and-"

"MLAPAN!"

Aeris's voice rang loud and clear across the docks, and everyone looked over at her. Her head was upright, her face parallel to the sky, and her eyes were wide open and emitted a soft green light, like the color of her eyes. Her hands were taught at her sides, with the fingers extended. She seemed possessed. She screamed out the word again.

"MLAPAN!"

Then she collapsed to the ground. Everyone ran over to her to make sure she was alright. Except for David. He stood still, looking thoughtfully down at the floor.

"MLAPAN…" he thought out loud. "MLAPAN… now where have I seen that- Deep Dungeon!" Everyone turned around to look at him.

"David?" Dorothy said. "What are you talking about? We just came from Deep Dungeon."

"No, MLAPAN is a floor in the Deep Dungeon," David responded. He was with Ramza right up until the battle with Elibidis. That was the moment when Dorothy got sick, so he left Ramza and then he was replaced by the Byblos creature, so he just stayed with Dorothy.

"So I guess we're going back into the Deep Dungeon," Rush said. "But this time, we're taking David with us as a guide."

"What?" David said, scared and confused. "Don't be silly! I don't know my way around there any better than you do!"

"Maybe not," Olan said, shrugging. "But you're the best we've got right now. I'll lead the team that goes down there. Bal, Dan, Chris, and Rush will come with me for support. Dave, you'll be our guide."

"What about the rest of us?" Pamela asked. She wanted to be there if they found Masahiro. "Why can't we go?"

"If they're not down there," Olan continued, looking at Pamela and Aeris. "We'll have to fight our way out. And I don't want to get stuck protecting more people than I have to."

"Well, it was my blindingly painful vision that led you to believe anything at all was in the Deep Dungeon," Aeris said commandingly. "Can't I at least come along to see Cloud?"

"How do you know he will be?" Balmafula asked.

"I just have a feeling," Aeris replied. "A hunch if you will. Just take my word for it. They're there."

"Okay, Aeris can come," Olan said, obviously thinking she may prove useful in leading them to their friends and loved ones. "Pamela, you should come along, just to protect her."

"Well, sure," Pamela said, glad that he didn't just let David baby sit the flower girl. "If you want me to come, I'll come."

"So it's settled then," Olan said. "Dave, Bal, Dan, Aeris, Pam, Rush, Chris, come with me. The rest of you go back to Jack's mansion."

"Okay everybody," Jack O'Bannon said loudly to all those not going to the Deep Dungeon. "Let's head out." They got in the carriage that brought them to the dock, and set out for the O'Bannon mansion as the other fighters got on the boat.

A/N: Okay, the chapters following will be more like this length, except with something actually happening besides Aeris getting a vision. I just needed to introduce the rest of the characters, not all of whom will be important. The main focus will be on Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, Ophelia, Kletian, Meliadoul, Beowulf, and Reis because I like them. And a couple other characters that haven't yet been introduced. Minor characters like Jack, Marcus, and Elmyra will make random appearances but not really be involved in the story. Now, finally, all the characters will be together and the story should pick up.


	20. Chapter 19: The Return

Agrias opened her eyes and looked around. She saw the others in Ramza's troupe lying around her, all unconscious. They were on a high plain surrounded by water on all sides. Agrias was sure that she had seen something like this before

"Deep Dungeon!" she yelled, and a few people near by snapped out of their seemingly enchanted sleep. Ophelia and Mustadio sat up and looked at her. They had also realized where they must be.

"But where in Deep Dungeon?" Mustadio asked, and Agrias gave him a look that said 'What am I, Deep Dungeon scholar?' and Mustadio turned to Ophelia.

"Well," Ophelia said. "Let's look at what we know. We know that the Deep Dungeon has ten floors, and we know that on each floor there is an exit. So, we don't even need to know what floor we're on, we just need to find the exit that goes up to the previous floor. That way, we'll make it out of here without standing around figuring out where we are."

"Sounds like a plan," Agrias shrugged, and stopped moving for a bit. She listened carefully to her surroundings, and was sure that she wasn't imagining it this time.

"Agrias, what is it," Ophelia asked, but Agrias shushed him and then she and Mustadio heard what she must be talking about. A low growl, barely audible, was growing louder by the second.

"You don't suppose that's Reis is it?" Mustadio asked although he already knew the answer. Out of the shadows crawled a wicked looking Red Dragon. It snorted, and electricity crackled out of it's nose. Behind it followed a bluish, bird-like Jurvais and a purple, horned Behemoth.

"Okay, Mustadio," Agrias said. "You take the bird. Ophelia, take the dragon. The behemoth is mine."

The dragon charged at Ophelia, but she teleported out of the way before it got to her. She reappeared behind it and started to cast a spell. Meanwhile, the Jurvais took off throughout the cave, screeching all the while. Poor Mustadio couldn't hit it no matter how hard he tried. The bird flew in a circular path, and Mustadio shot at where he thought it was, but he kept hitting just behind it. Then he got an idea. He spun around the other way, and when the Jurvais flew by, he shot at it and hit. Unfortunately, he only wounded it. Agrias was just far enough away from the Behemoth to use her Stasis Sword, so she swung the Defender, and clear crystals fell from the sky, crashing down on the monster. The gargantuan creature merely shook it off and charged at her, and Agrias was forced to fall back. Ophelia finally managed to gather enough energy to cast her spell, and the immense firepower of Flare exploded around the unsuspecting dragon. This injured it, but it still kept coming. The three warriors were forced back to back in a circle as the creatures continued to bear down on them.

"Okay," Agrias said, looking at her companions. "On the count of three. One, two-"

"Destiny lies in my hands! Stop movement! Galaxy Stop!"

The three monsters advancing on them stopped cold. The three human's looked near where the voice came from, and saw eight pairs of eyes glittering in the darkness.

"See?" another voice piped up. "I told you they'd be here."

Agrias's mind snapped back to the battle, and she plunged her sword into the heart of the Behemoth. It gave out a cry as it fell dead to the ground. Emboldened by her move, Mustadio and Ophelia moved to their respective monsters. Mustadio shot the Jurvais in the head, and it fell to the floor dead. Ophelia decided to forgo her spells and gripped her Mace of Zeus with both hands and brought it down on the Dragon's head. The sickening sound of cracking bone resounded through the cavern, and the Dragon fell, dead.

At that moment, Masahiro and Ramza awoke. Seeing the peril that his friends were in, they ran over to meet them. Seeing the monsters dead on the floor of the cavern, he walked up to Agrias.

"What happened here?" Ramza said, although he could just assume what he thought happened.

"Well, these things came and attacked us out of nowhere," Agrias replied and pointed to the place where she saw the other people enter. "And then they showed up and saved us." They had since climbed over to Ramza and Agrias. One of them had a lamp, and it illuminated the first three people in the group: Olan, David, and Balmafula.

"Ramza," Olan asked, squinting through the darkness. "Is that you?" Then the body of the Behemoth began to crystallize, and it shed a dim, eerie blue light across the small band of adventurers. Then, Ramza saw that Daniel, Aeris, Pamela, Chris, and Rush had accompanied Olan to their rescue.

"Masahiro!" Pamela yelled, and ran into his arms with tears in his eyes. "I thought you were dead. Don't ever leave me like that again."

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, putting his arms around her waist and pulling her close into his body. Then, over in the still dark area, another of Ramza's group woke up. It was Alma. She brushed the dirt out of her red skirt and walked over to Mustadio.

"Hey Mustadio," she said to him. "How'd you get down here?"

"Same way you did," he replied. "I just woke up here. It must have something to do with that weird dream I had."

"Did someone dead come to you and try to tell you that you died too?" Alma asked, wide eyed with fear and excitement.

"Kind of," Mustadio said, confused as Worker 8 flickered to life. "Balk appeared and told me that I had this mysterious destiny. Although I don't think I should have believed him."

"Mine was Simon," Agrias declared. "He told me how Rad, Alicia, and Lavian died."

"Ours was Gafgarion," Ramza said. "He fed us this line about a female mechanic named Claudia who was killed by Vormav."

"It was the saddest thing I had ever seen," Alma added. "I cried like a baby."

"Worker 8's was me," Worker 8 said in a fairly human voice. "Horacio Bunanza."

"Wait," Mustadio said. "Are you my grandfather?"

"Yes Mustadio," Worker 8 replied, still sounding like Horacio. "And I've integrated myself into my creation's programming so I can watch over my son and grandson from here on the surface instead of limbo."

"What was yours Hiro?" Alma asked curiously. "Who was your spirit guide?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," Masahiro replied curtly, squeezing Pamela's hand.

"What about you Ophelia?" Alma asked again. "Who was yours?"

"My brother," she answered as the Byblos woke up. "His name was John. John Kaishou. He died when I was young."

"Pentecireia," the Byblos said gruffly and pointed to itself.

"Your spirit guide was named Pentecireia?" Ramza asked as Kletian got up.

The Byblos shook its head and pointed to itself again. "Pentecireia!" it cried.

"Oh I get it," Ophelia realized. "It's you. You're Pentecireia aren't you?" The Byblos nodded.

"Boy," Kletian said, rubbing his eyes. "That's a mouthful, can't we just call you Pent?" The Byblos nodded.

"Pent it is then," Ophelia said congenially as Worker 8 walked over and picked up Orlandu. Everyone looked over at it and Agrias stepped forward.

"Um, Horacio," she asked. "Or Worker 8 or whoever you are? What exactly are you doing with Orlandu?"

"My systems detect more monsters moving on our location," the machine replied. The voice of Horacio Bunanza had been replaced with the standard robotic computer voice that Worker 8 had when it was first programmed. The rest of the gang realized he was right when they heard the whooping battle cry of a band of goblins in the distance. "It would be prudent for us to get out of here soon."

"Good idea," Ramza said as Aeris was picking Cloud up and carrying him all by herself. She really was a remarkable young woman. "Olan, Bal, Ophelia, Musty, Agrias, you stay here with me in case anything gets here before we're out. The rest of you, grab someone and get the hell out of here."

Pamela grabbed onto Alma's hand and began to drag her out of the cavern, and the others followed. Ramza and his five supporters backed towards the exit. Ramza stopped when he felt a presence behind him. The others stopped as well.

"Ramza, what is it?" Agrias asked, and he pushed her to the ground. "Ramza what the-" and she saw a shiny samurai blade where she had just been. Everyone else jumped out of the way.

"So, you sensed me," the mysterious samurai said, still shrouded by darkness. "But no matter. I'll just kill you now."

The samurai gripped his blade with both hands and charged right for Bal. She dodged his sword swipe, and Ramza and Agrias got up. She hit him with a blast of Fire, less to damage him and more to knock him backwards. Then, Ophelia charged for him holding the Chirijiraden. In the chaos she had changed into a blade-wielding Samaurai herself. He met her blade with his own Kikuichiimoji. The two samurai's blades moved away from each other as they faced off to strike again.

Mustadio and Olan were arming themselves to get into the battle when a bullet graced in front of them. Startled, they both jumped back. Looking to where the shot came from, they saw the small form of a female Chemist with short, black hair.

"Care to catch me?" she said to them, and disappeared up the entrance to the next floor.

"That's where everyone else went," Olan said, looking at Mustadio. "We've got to go after her!" Then he noticed that Mustadio and Balmafula had already started after her. He ran after them.

Meanwhile, the mystery samurai turned his attacks against Agrias. He swung the Kikuichiimoji her way, but she got out of the way just in time. The sword only graced her right arm, slitting a thin, red line on her bicep. Ophelia and Ramza both came at him at the same time, weapons drawn.

"Kikuichiimoji!" the samurai yelled, and a stream of energy shot underneath the earth towards the two warriors, and they were knocked to the ground. Agrias let go of her arm and summoned her sword techniques.

"The devil's spirit of restlessness, Split Punch!" she yelled, and a ghostly purple sword of gargantuan proportions erupted from the ground underneath this mystery opponent, severely wounding the samurai.

"Damn it!" he yelled standing up. "You're good. For your victory, I leave you a name. Rivonick. Remember it. Fear it."

Then he backed into the shadows and disappeared. The cry of the goblins seemed awful close. Ophelia, Ramza, and Agrias all looked at each other and immediately sprinted after the others to the exit.

Olan ran out of the exit to the Deep Dungeon. They had lost the Chemist. She had disappeared. Maybe it was just her intention to lead them out. Whatever the reason, Olan now saw the vessel that he had sailed here on pulling back into the desecrated port that had once been bustling with workers for the lighthouse, but was now neglected. Olan wondered why the ship had left at all.

"I told you we shouldn't have left," he heard the soft yet commanding voice of Strawberry yell at their poor ship's captain, who was terrified of the Deep Dungeon. He kept walking towards to docks, and he saw the others waiting for the ship's return. Strawberry, the Robe of Lords itself swishing in the winds, Daniel, a steel knight's sword resting in his hands just in case, and Alma, crying profusely as usual, walked off the boat and towards the people left on the island.

"Sorry about that," Strawberry apologized. "Let's get back to Warjilis now, shall we?" The cry of goblins was heard again inside the dank caverns beneath the lighthouse.

"Yes, let's," Olan responded. "And quickly." And with that, the nine people got back on the boat and sailed away to Warjilis.

Chris looked out over the waters of the Burgoss Sea, and thought about the battle with Ajora. Not that she was in it, she had just wanted all those involved to come back alright. Especially Malak.

She had been wild and dangerous like her sister, and Malak had changed her into the productive member of the team that she was today. He saved her life, and she could never possibly repay him for that. And she could never tell him that she loved him.

"I just don't know," she thought out loud. "What should I do about this?"

"About what?" All the blood drained from Chris's face. She quickly composed herself and turned around to face Malak. "What should you do about what? Hello, Chris, anyone home?"

"Hi Malak," she said congenially. "How're things?"

"Chris, Chris," Malak said, leaning on the railing next to her, looking out towards the sea. "What have I told you about being vague?"

"Don't be vague because no one will ever know what you're talking about," Chris dictated. "And then no one will respect you. I remember."

"I'm glad SOME of my advice is sinking in with someone," he exclaimed, tracing his finger on the rough, wooden edge of the boat.

"Who's not taking your advice?" Chris asked as she turned around to lean her elbows against the railing. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Promise to keep it a secret?" Malak asked, and Chris drew an 'X' with her right index finger across her heart. Malak smiled. "It's Rafa. She's developed a little crush that might be dangerous."

"On who?" Chris asked. Despite her best efforts, she could never pass up an opportunity for some new gossip. "How could it be dangerous among these people? I mean, I know some of them have problems, but-"

"It's Sir Beowulf." Chris was astounded by what Malak had just said. "If she acts on it, I don't know what will happen to Reis. I mean she's unstable now, when she's in a happy, healthy relationship. Her years as a dragon did quite a number on her psyche."

"I promise I won't squeal on her," Chris said, and looked him in the eyes. "But I want you to promise me something."

"Anything," Malak replied. "I mean, that's what friends do isn't it? They look out for each other."

The word 'friend' cut deep like a knife in Chris's heart. But her years of emotional deadness when she was with the Bull Demons paid off, and it didn't show on her face.

"Promise me that if something is bothering you," Chris finished. "That you'll come and talk to me about it. I'm here for you. Don't ever forget that." They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, then Chris decided to move in for a kiss. As she got closer, she felt a tug from behind her pushing her closer to Malak. Her head shifted to the side, and she realized that she had been caught in one of Malak's patented hugs.

"I'm so glad I have friends like you Chris," Malak said, shaking his head and rubbing her back a little. He had once again said the magic word that made Chris's eyes well up with tears.

"About my name," she said, swallowing the tears she felt forming in her eyes and broke away from the hug. "Can you call me something a little more feminine? Like Chrissie, or Christine?"

"Wow, I had no idea it bothered you so much Chris, I mean, Chrissie" Malak said, correcting himself. "From now on I will try to call you Chrissie."

"I'd appreciate that," Chris replied. "See you around Malak."

"Same to you, friend" Malak said. He waved back at her, smiled that smile, and went into the cabins. This was the moment when Chris broke down and began to sob.

On the bow of the small ship, Kletian Drowa stood and looked at the cracked wood on the prow. It made intricate, almost arcane, designs, and was very interesting to him. He was staring so intently at it that he didn't notice a presence beside him. Thinking it a foe, he whirled around with his Mace drawn, and then he saw it was only Meliadoul.

"Do you try to kill everyone who stands behind you or just the hooded ones?" Meliadoul asked sarcastically.

"No, just the ones who attacked me before," Kletian said, and turned back to the prow of the ship to look at the cracks in the wood.

"Kletian," Meliadoul began. "I want to apologize to you. After all, we did try to kill you twice."

"Is this apology from just you, or is it from all of Ramza's little flunkies?" Kletian asked, still focused on the cracked wood. "Or is it from the head puppeteer himself?

"Listen to me Kletian," Meliadoul said frankly. "I'm going to be honest with you. The only ones here who can even tolerate your presence are myself because I knew you before anyone else here, Daniel because you're a noble, and Aeris because she loves everyone. You would do well to get along with us because you will most likely get stuck with us for a little while longer anyway."

"Your master is having a meeting to discuss this mysterious Rivonick person in the captain's cabin," Kletian said. "As one of those on his front line, and his little fan girl to boot, you should be there."

"Fine," Meliadoul said angrily, turning around and heading for the cabins. "But if everyone on board abandons you, don't come crying to me about it!"

"Don't worry Melly," he said, using a nickname from her teen years that he knew she hated. "You will never see me cry. Not over you, or over any of Ramza's little mercenary group."

Ramza had assembled the four people that he typically used on his front lines, plus Olan and a few others in case they needed backup. These people included Ophelia, Orlandu, Beowulf, Agrias, Meliadoul, Strawberry and Mustadio.

"So," Ramza began. "Any ideas who the hell this new player is or what he wants?"

"Well, let's go over what we know about him so far," Ophelia said, always wanting to look at things from an analytical perspective. She had now changed her clothes again, and was wearing the slightly vampiric outfit of a Calculator. "He's obviously powerful, not in a 'nullify all existence' way like Ajora, but still a major threat. He seems very old to me for some reason, and the name Rivonick sounds familiar. Not a lot of concrete stuff to go on."

"Wait," Olan chimed in. "What about that book you found underneath Orbonne? What was it called?"

"The Germonik Scriptures?" Beowulf offered.

"Yes, that one," Olan said. "Germonik, Rivonick, they sound similar. Maybe there's some sort of… connection." He instantly realized the foolishness of his suggestion.

"Well, that may not be as foolish as you may think," Ophelia thought out loud.

"It's more than we have to go on now," Mustadio said darkly, and counted his points off on his fingers. "I mean, we know he was in the Deep Dungeon, he 'seems old' to Ophelia, his name is Rivonick, and he's powerful. And that's it."

"Well, that's not all we know," Agrias spoke up, and everyone looked at her as if to imply she should explain. "Well, while we were fighting, I noticed something. He had the crest of Virgo on his helmet."

"Now that you mention it," Ramza remembered. "I do recall a Virgo sign on his forehead. Perhaps he's allied with Altima."

"Perhaps he's a member of a new generation of Zodiac Braves," Beowulf ventured.

"Perhaps he's a servant of His Majesty Delita," Orlandu suggested. "After all, we know the truth about the Church's corruption, and Delita might be willing to do much to hide it."

"Perhaps he's a coconut sent here in human form to take over the world," Mustadio said sarcastically. "These are an awful lot of 'perhapses'. We still don't know anything about this guy."

"The Acolytes of Ajora." Everyone looked over at Strawberry. She took off her Summoner's horn and placed it neatly in her pocket and stood. "My spirit guide was Rush's sister Vanessa, and she told me several times to be careful of this group called the 'Acolytes of Ajora' if I remember correctly. Maybe he heads that."

"Well, did Vanessa tell you anything else about these 'Acolytes'?" Ramza asked. "Like names or anything more concrete to go on?"

"No," Strawberry replied, taking off her cloak. "Just that they're dangerous and that we should avoid them."

"Strawberry," Ophelia asked. "Why are you taking off your cloak?"

"Well," Strawberry replied, fishing through the pocket of the black undercoat for something. After a few moments, she pulled out Virgo. It was the stone she had been charged with taking care of after they left because she had no contact whatsoever with Alma. "Here. Something's happening to it."

Virgo glowed with a dim, blue light, and it kept flashing brightly. Ramza had to shield his eyes from it.

"What does it mean," he asked. "Why is it doing this?"

"Perhaps it really is these 'Acolytes'," Orlandu contributed. " We should endeavor to find them."

"I agree with Cidolfas," Meliadoul said, using her mentor's first name. "But I would like to make a small change. Perhaps we could send a few people to investigate the Murond Holy Place, a few more to the lighthouse over the Deep Dungeon, and some to the Nelveska Temple."

"Why Nelveska?" Agrias asked. "We got what Worker 7-new was guarding, it was the Cancer stone. Why go back?"

"No, the Cancer stone was its power source," Meliadoul corrected. "I believe that there is still something there."

"Sounds plausible," Ramza said. "Orlandu, you take Mel, Ophelia, and Cloud and go to the Murond Holy Place. Beowulf, you take Reis, Kylie, and Strawberry and check out the lighthouse over the Deep Dungeon. Musty, Olan, Agrias, you'll come with me to Nelveska Island. Tell everyone else to go back to Jack's mansion in Warjilis. We can't risk putting them in danger. You all have your assignments, now go."

The members of Ramza's inner circle left the captain's cabin and informed everyone of their plan. And soon, they docked into the port at Warjilis.

At the docks, they got off their boat, which belonged to Jack O'Bannon, and saw lying on the ground a very injured Gene and an unconscious Besrodio. Ophelia ran over to him.

"Oh my god," she said worriedly, throwing his arms around him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm alive, but still in a great deal of agony," he winced, and Ophelia let go. "It's Melissa. She betrayed us, and she took the coach to Nelveska. But it's not normal anymore. She enchanted it somehow, and now it goes much faster."

"Dammit," Ramza said. "Why is everyone always one step ahead of us? We'll never catch her now."

"Actually," Mustadio said. "I know of a way we could not only catch her, but maybe even beat her to Nelveska. Goug is only a day's journey by boat, so we'd better pack up Jack's ship and head out."

"Okay, if you say so," Ramza said. "Can you drive that thing?"

"Yes, but it would probably be a better idea if we let Father operate it so we don't have to warm it up in case we need to get off the island in a hurry," Mustadio answered.

"Alright," Ramza replied, and then he turned to his group. "Beowulf, you're still be going to the lighthouse to see if you can come up with anything. Orlandu, you come with us as far as Goug, then take the ship to Murond. Take Pent with you just in case. Worker 8 will come with me and mine to Nelveska on this new mode of transportation Besrodio invented. Everyone else, head back to the mansion. I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

"I don't take orders from a heretic," Kletian snapped at Ramza. "I won't go to this mansion, and I will go wherever I damn well please."

"Fine, whatever," Ramza shrugged. "I don't care. As far as I'm concerned Kletian, our partnership ends here."

"Fine with me," Kletian replied, and set off by foot for town. Rush and Christine led those not boarding Jack's ship or the ferry to the Deep Dungeon back to the mansion, and everyone went on their respective quests.

Meanwhile on Nelveska island, the samurai Rivonick knelt before a shadowed throne, his head bowed in veneration.

"It is begun my Mistress," he said, smiling maliciously. "The wheels have been set in motion for the rise of Ajora."

"Good," the female figure on the throne said, uncrossing her black leather boots and walking into the light. "Soon our Master will rise, and we will destroy this world.

A/N: Oh god, not Ajora again! I know, but I promise, other better villains will follow. And she'll be better under my control than she ever was in the game. At least there's a plot now.


	21. Chapter 20: A New Threat

Aboard the boat to Goug, Balmafula Lanando decided that this was the last time she was going to stand by and watch the action: she was going to be a part of it whether Ramza Beoulve liked it or not. She got up from in back of the crate she was hiding behind and began to run for the door to Ophelia and Agrias's cabin. They were least likely to tell on her where Meliadoul would squeal to Ramza in a heartbeat not only to gain favor with him, but because it was the nature of a Shrine Knight to rat out their enemies. And Balmafula considered all of the ex-Shrine Knights enemies. They planned to rule the world with an iron fist, and that's not something one just gets over. As she snuck in, she noticed that no one was there.

"Huh," she thought out loud. "Must be having a meeting on the deck or something."

"Nope," she heard a male's voice from behind her say. "We came to see what all the sneaking around the boat was for."

She turned around and there stood Olan, Agrias, and Ophelia, who were all three just wearing a simple flannel suit of pajamas. Ramza and Meliadoul were nowhere to be found. She let out a sigh of relief. She was safe for now.

"I just wanted to be useful for once," she whined. "I mean, I am an Archsage, I do have some power. I can help. And besides, I'm smart as hell!"

"Okay, we won't hand you over to Ramza," Agrias said. "Only if you promise us that you won't get killed out there. You can stay with Ophelia and I."

"Phew," Balmafula said, relieved. "That's good news. I promise to do my best not to get killed."

"Okay," Ophelia said as she entered her sleeping quarters for the night. "Oh, and one more thing: Mel rooms with us too, and she'll be down in a moment. Good luck avoiding her." Ophelia waved to Balmafula as she shut the door.

Balmafula panicked for a moment, then ran up out to the deck to hide there. Olan followed her.

Olan ran up to the deck looking for Balmafula, but he didn't see her anywhere. Then, Meliadoul walked past him, headed for her room with Agrias and Ophelia. He hoped she didn't tell Ramza Balmafula was stowing away on the ship. The three women were sharing a room, as well as were the four young men, Ramza, Mustadio, Cloud, and Olan. Orlandu and Besrodio were forced to sleep in the same room as the Byblos and the robot. Olan felt kind of bad for them, but he supposed Pent and Worker 8 were alright. Then, as Ramza, Cloud, and Mustadio walked towards the cabins, he saw a small blonde knob sticking out from behind a couple of supply crates. He waved goodnight to Ramza and the others and walked over to the crate.

"Hey Bal," he said, and she looked up at him, terrified that he found her hiding spot. "Why not just tell Ramza you're here? I'm sure he won't mind."

"He'll try to baby me like he does with all his women," Balmafula said, and crossed her arms. "You see how he won't let a woman lead a group."

"Beowulf has proven his usefulness time and again Bal," Olan said. "And Sir Orlandu is a powerful, almost invincible hero, and Ramza fancies himself the leader. All three are incredibly strong, a kind of Holy Trinity if you will."

"Blasphemy is not a color you wear well Olan," Balmafula replied, standing up because everyone else had gone to bed. "Besides, what about Strawberry? Why couldn't she lead a group? She has Zodiac."

"By the time she summoned it, any one of those three would have cut her down a thousand times," Olan retorted, "Hell, anyone else on Ramza's team, even Masahiro, would have cut her down a thousand times before she got it out."

"What about Ophelia?" Balmafula continued. "She's powerful, resourceful, and smart. She has mastered all the job classes. Isn't she the perfect candidate for a leader?"

"No matter how resourceful she is," Olan continued. "She still isn't immune to Beowulf's many status effects."

"Haven't you noticed yet?" Balmafula said condescendingly. "You can't tell me that you haven't noticed that Ribbon that she ties in her hair rather religiously? That protects against anything Beowulf can dish out."

"Well, then, what about Orlandu?" Olan shot back. "He'd hit her with a Lightning Stab before she even got a chance to move."

"Are you kidding?" Balmafula said, annoyed. "She'd just become a Ninja and dodge it and strike him before he had the chance to realize his attack missed."

"What about Ramza?" Olan tried, although he knew she was just going to come up with some sort of half-baked reason why Ophelia would win. Feminists.

"You mean speed of a rock?" Balmafula asked. "I mean, I'm grateful to him for saving the world and everything, but he's the slowest member on the whole team, except for Worker 8. He wouldn't stand a chance against her, even if she was a thief."

"I'm done arguing with you," Olan said, and turned around. "I'm going to bed."

"Goodnight," Balmafula said to his back. "It was nice talking to you!"

Ramza knocked on Agrias's door. He watched as the door slowly swung open, and she looked at him in her nightgown.

"Hey Agrias," Ramza said as if there was nothing wrong with knocking on someone's door when the sun was down and they were trying to sleep. Tact had never been his strongpoint. "Can we talk?"

"Can I put on some pants first?" she asked groggily.

"You are probably the only woman who would ever say that," Ramza answered. "Well, except maybe for Chris."

"Uh huh," Agrias replied, shutting the door. She came back out a few moments later wearing her traditional gray armor with the blue skirt. Ramza changed out of his seafoam green turtleneck and decided to go back to his dark blue breastplate and leather boots.

He reached his hand out, very gentlemanly, and she took it and they walked up to the deck near the back of the boat. Agrias was still rubbing her eyes a little.

"What did you want to talk to me about that couldn't wait 'til morning?" Agrias said sleepily.

"Well, ever since the battle with Zalera in Limberry Castle, there's been something I wanted to ask you but couldn't find the words," he said, making a reference to the time that she got hit by a high level death spell and nearly didn't make it. "Or I could find the words but they wouldn't come out the right way. Agrias, I-"

"Yes?" she asked, hoping against hope he was about to say what she wished he would say.

"What do you think about Meliadoul?" he asked, and Agrias's heart sunk like a rock. "I mean she doesn't seem to like men very much. Maybe the betrayal of her father and the death of her brother jaded her a bit."

"Yeah I think she's gay," Agrias said with no actual proof, just a hope that he would believe her and stay within her reach. "Maybe you should find her a nice girl to settle down with or something."

"I don't think she's gay, I just think she hasn't yet found a man besides Orlandu that she can trust," Ramza speculated. "She just needs to meet a nice guy who can make her happy, you know?"

"Ramza," Agrias said, finally working up the courage to ask him what she really wanted to. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you too." Ramza sensed her pause.

"Whatever it is, just say it," Ramza said, putting his arm around her. "You know I look out for everybody on my team."

"Well," Agrias said, beginning to lose her nerve. "I wanted to say… that… we've been friends a long time now, and…"

'God, when it comes to monsters I can fell a Behemoth in a few hits, but I can't even tell Ramza how I feel about him," she thought. 'Come on now Aggie, just say it. Tell him that you-'

"Agrias?" Ramza asked, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you feeling okay? You zoned out there for a minute."

"Never mind," she said, pushing her hair behind her ear. "It's nothing. I'm going to stay out here for a few more minutes, so I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," Ramza said, thoroughly confused. "I'll see you tomorrow. Don't stay out too late. We may need you in tip-top shape when you wake up." He made his way towards the cabins as Mustadio walked out going the opposite way.

"Let me guess," Mustadio said as he walked up to Agrias. "You couldn't say it?"

"God, I don't know what's wrong with me," she cried. "It's three little words. 'I… love… you'. That's it. And it terrifies me to death. Maybe I should just give up…"

"No," Musty said, and grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Don't ever give up! Ever! You and Ramza are meant for each other Agrias. I know it. He may not come right out and say it, but I'm his best friend and I know him better than anyone. He loves you. He may not show it, and he may not realize it yet, but give him time. He's mentally deficient, remember?"

"Okay," Agrias said, a little afraid. "If you say so Mustadio. Well, I've got to go look for Bal-" She stopped cold when she realized she had given away Balmafula's position.

"What?" Mustadio asked.

"Mel," Agrias corrected herself. "I've got to go look for Mel."

"It's okay, I saw Balmafula sneak in too. I think Melly is the only one who doesn't know she's on board," Mustadio explained, and Agrias breathed a sigh of relief. "I should probably turn in too. I'll walk you to your room." He offered his arm to her and Agrias smiled.

"Such a gentleman," she said, taking his arm. And the walked arm in arm to the cabins together.

"Hiro, where's your fortune now, when we're walking in the hot sun to your house?" Alma complained, lifting her dress up to walk over some debris in her way. Masahiro looked annoyed because only members of his family and Pamela could call him 'Hiro'. "Couldn't you call a coach or something?"

"Alma stop complaining," Rafa said. "Back in the day with your brother, we walked everywhere. Have you ever wondered why none of us ever got fat?"

"High metabolism?" Alma guessed, and collapsed dramatically on the ground. "I'm dying."

"Anybody else want to stop for a break?" Rafa asked. Everyone else shook their heads. "Sorry Alma, but majority rules. You can sleep when we get to Jack's mansion."

Alma groaned, but got back up. Aeris reached into her basket of flowers and pulled a Potion out. Alma grabbed it out of her hands and guzzled it down. And they kept walking.

Soon, they were in the middle of the bustling trade city Warjilis. People were going all different ways, and carrying many different packages. In the middle of the town, a giant fountain stood with three statues of the three founders of the three trade cities: Heinlein Warjilis, Ramuda Dorter, and Nigel Zarghidas. Heinlein Warjilis was a great Chemist, while Ramuda was a dark-skinned foreign Time Mage, and Nigel was a scholar. They had been crafted long ago when Altima had first risen and people needed a place to go for the goods they couldn't get in Ivalice anymore, like samurai swords and ninja knives.

"Melissa wouldn't dare attack us here," Masahiro said. "Dave, I want you to take Gene back to my place. Pamela, take the women with you too."

Rafa raised an eyebrow. "Why do the women have to go to the mansion? I can personally fight better than you Masahiro. And who made you the boss?"

"Okay then," Masahiro said, totally ignoring the boss comment. "Dave, Gene, Pamela, Alma, and Aeris will go back to the mansion. The rest of you ask around town, see if you can find out where Melissa went."

"Why?" a familiar voice said from the statue of Ramuda. "She's right here." There was a clap of lightning, and then Melissa appeared, sitting cross-legged in front of the statue of the great Time Mage. She tossed her dark hair out of her eyes, and smiled viciously.

"Run!" Gene yelled. "You don't stand a chance! She's much too powerful now!"

"Aw, how quaint," Melissa said as a crowd gathered around her. "The whole village has shown up to be slaughtered." She lifted her hand up, and picked up a woman in the middle up the crowd psychically. Then she closed her hand into a fist and the woman started to choke.

"Stop it! You're killing her!" Masahiro yelled. "Please sister, don't make us kill you."

"You, kill me?" Melissa said, and she laughed an unholy cackle as the crowd fled and the life slipped out of the woman she was choking. She let her go and the woman ran away. "Foolish humans."

She let out a bolt of lightning from her fingertips and shot it at the woman she had let go of. It hit her square in the back and she started to convulse as the lightning continued. Then, after a few seconds, her charred corpse dropped to the cobblestones.

"Monster!" Masahiro said, and loaded the Perseus Bow. He fired an arrow right at Melissa's face, but, without her moving a single muscle, she fried the arrow right in the air.

"Stupid Hiro," she replied, standing up. At that moment, a demonic quality came into her voice. "I could level this whole town if I wanted." Energy surged from behind her, ruffling her hair and dress. She raised her right hand in the air, her palm curled in a circular form, and began to gather up energy.

"Deus oportet exuro orbis terrarum! Heavenfire!" The energy orb in her hand turned black and became enflamed. It grew quickly in size and she flung it at the six heroes. It hit Rush and Christine and they flew backwards into the side of the local pub. The black fireball knocked a hole in the wall which they flew through. Masahiro ran after them. Luckily, by this time everyone had evacuated this part of the city, so casualties would be low to nonexistent. Malak gripped his Rune Sword (Hell KNIGHT, he can use sword too) in his hand and rushed for Melissa, but she just shimmered out of the way and his sword got stuck in the fountain.

"Deus oportet exuro- Ah!" Her chant was interrupted by Rafa's Faith Rod cracking over her head. She now turned her attention to Rafa as she chanted another spell.

"Universium es malum! Induco orbis terrarum obscurum! Heartless Angel!" Jet black wings sprouted from her back and a blood red sword materialized in her hand. A black fire burned in her gentle eyes, and she smirked an evil smirk. She rose up in the air and then charged right for Rafa, sword drawn.

"Heaven Thunder!" Rafa yelled, and an arcane symbol infused with the power of thunder appeared in front of her, blocking Melissa's attack. Unfortunately, a similar symbol appeared and blocked her brother from coming to her rescue. The symbols disappeared and Melissa flew backwards preparing for another strike.

"Ready Malak?" Rafa asked, and her brother nodded. He ran over to her and held her hand. They both lifted their outside hands up and began to chant as Melissa flew towards them at high speed.

"Double Diamond Sword!" they both yelled, and an arcane symbol with the power of wind appeared in front of them, blowing the fallen angel backwards into someone's house. Right through the wall.

During this whole battle, Daniel had merely stood and watched. He was too terrified by this display of power to even move. He watched as the house Melissa fell into shook.

""Deus oportet exuro orbis terrarum! Heavenfire!" The entire front of the house blew apart, knocking the two ex-Kamyuja assassins on their backs. Stepping through the fire, Melissa looked completely unharmed, although she had lost her wings and her sword.

"You are certainly formidable opponents," she said, dusting her dress off. "The hardest opponents I've ever fought. Well, the only opponents I've ever fought, but still. You are to be commended for your bravery, but it ends here. "Deus oportet exuro-"

"Wait!" Daniel screamed, and Melissa held her black fireball. "What if we could make you some kind of deal?" Masahiro had now emerged from the bar with an unconscious Christine in his arms and an injured Rush next to him.

"Now that's more like it," Melissa said, and the fireball disintegrated. "I will be willing to trade your miserable lives for the Mirror of Ajora. I know you have it."

"What the hell is the Mirror of Ajora?" Rush asked. "And what makes you think we have it? All the treasure is stored safely away-"

"In a vault in the mansion, I know," Melissa finished. "And if any of it was worth my time I'd have taken it already. The Mirror of Ajora cannot be taken, it can only be given, and you have it. I know you do."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Rush said. "And no matter what you do to us, we'll never give it to you."

"Yes we will," Daniel said, searching his pockets and pulled out a hand mirror inlaid with rubies and emeralds. "Is this is?"

"No that's trash," Melissa said, extending her hand as it emitted a supersonic noise that shattered the mirror. "I believe Rush has the Mirror I'm looking for."

"What? I don't have anything," Rush said, taking off his jacket. "But even if I did, I'd still never give it to you."

As he removed the jacket, the Mirror found at the Deep Dungeon fell out of his inside pocket. Malak's gaze fell with it as he realized what it must be. Both he and Melissa dove for the Mirror, but Malak got to it first. He picked it up and barrel rolled over next to Rafa.

"We've got the Mirror Melissa," Malak said. "And nothing you can do to me will ever make me give it up."

"Fine," Melissa said. "You want to play hard ball? Well okay then. Batter up!" She stretched out her hand, and the unconscious Christine flew to her. Melissa smiled again.

"You may not care what I do to you," Melissa said. "But do you care what I do to her?"

"Put her down," Malak threatened. "Or else-"

"Or else what?" Melissa laughed. "You'll annoy me to death? You stupid Heaven and Hell Knights make me sick with your randomized magic and your white robes. Let me show you what real magic power can do."

She merely touched Christine's face with her finger, and Christine screamed in pain.

"Wait," Masahiro yelled. "Melissa, why are you doing this? You're not evil."

"Maybe not," Melissa said. "But at least now I'm useful. All I could ever do is sit back and watch while you and Jack saved the world. I was Mom and Dad's favorite, I was the one they liked, but that wasn't enough to save me in their will. They wanted to leave the money 'equally', so I got just as much as you two. It's your fault my life sucks."

"No, it's your fault your life sucks," Masahiro shouted. "It's your own damn fault. You squandered all your money on clothes, so you came to us. And we took you in out of the goodness of our hearts. And you spent lots of our money. You were the ruin of the O'Bannon family."

"No," Melissa said. "It was you and your gallivanting all over the face of the earth helping that 'heretic'. You ruined the O'Bannon name. It was bad enough that you ran when Uncle Vernon framed you for our parents murder so you looked guilty, then you help someone who'd been excommunicated. If anyone ruined the family, it's you.

"But I'll tell you what," Melissa continued. "I'll make you a deal. You give me the Mirror, and I won't blow her pretty little head off. Does that sound fair?"

"Alright, alright," Malak said, putting his hands up. "Just calm down and let Chrissie go." Christine felt a tiny surge of joy at the thought that Malak called her Chrissie instead of Chris, but that feeling was quickly replaced by pain as Melissa touched her again and she blacked out.

"Wait," Rafa said. "What happened to Jack and the others in the carriage? What did you do to them?"

"They're safe back at the mansion," Melissa said. "Jack's part of my family, I can't hurt him. Besides, they're no threat to me. Well, except for Luna, but she's pathetic enough."

"Okay," Malak said, inching closer. "I'll give you the Mirror if you promise to give back Chrissie."

"No, you'll just attack me in an effort to make me drop her," Melissa said, looking at Daniel. "Give it to Dan. He won't attack me because I'm from noble blood. Plus he's not that stupid."

Malak gave Daniel the Mirror and he walked up to Melissa. When he got to her, he gave Melissa the Mirror.

"See? That wasn't so hard," Melissa condescended. She took Daniel's hand. "Now let's get out of here."

"What?" Rafa said, surprised. "You're double-crossing us?"

"What did you expect commie?" Daniel said to Rafa like she was totally stupid. "And Masahiro, if you have any brains at all, you'll join your sister. No? Well, we'll be on Nelveska Island if you change your mind."

Melissa and Daniel teleported away carrying both the Mirror of Ajora and Christine. The two ex-Kamyuja assassins and the dark haired archer looked at each other.

"Rush?" Masahiro said, and Rush looked his way. "Go back to the mansion. It's more than big enough to house everyone staying there already, so what's one more?"

"But I-"

"Look," Masahiro said sternly, unusually angry. He was always the overly calm one in the group. "You got thrown through a goddamn building! You're lucky to be alive! Go and rest, Aeris will heal you, she's good at that. We'll go to Nelveska and get her back."

Rush muttered something to himself, but begrudgingly trudged up to the O'Bannon mansion. The dark haired Archer turned to his two friends.

"Okay, any ideas on how we're getting to Nelveska?" he asked. "Because unless either of you can fly…"

"How's this boys?" The voice of Luna came from behind them. She was wearing one of her trademark tight fitting, low cut, orange dresses with matching shoes and earrings. She held an old looking book in her hands. The pages were all ripped and shredded, but the one page that was open was in perfect condition, and it looked like a spell.

"I've been experimenting with transdimensional transportation lately," she said, flaunting her chest. "And we can use this spell I found to transport people over great distances in a short time. I wont bother you with the extremely complicated magical details, but there is one thing. A sort of… hitch. Here's the thing, it's a pentagram spell. We need five people."

"That's what I'm here for," said her escort, the ever sarcastic Gene. He took off his Oracle hat and threw it into the ruins of the bar, revealing his dark hair. "Never liked that thing. I want to save the world too. Don't think that just because you got into Ramza's 'secret club' that you're the only ones who can fight. I can hold my own, or at least provide a distraction."

"Fine, just don't get in the way," Masahiro conceded. "Or die. Alright Luna, how is this spell supposed to work?"

Kylie Masters, drawing her thick Knight's cloak around her to beat off the night's chill, looked out over the Burgoss Sea. She thought about a lot of things, mostly what Algus told her about David. He didn't seem to still be in love with her. She wasn't sad about being the only person who wasn't 'romantically committed' as she liked to call it, in fact it had more perks than being with someone, but she admitted that it got lonely sometimes. Sometimes she'd like nothing more than to curl up with a warm body and fall asleep in his arms. She was a flirt, true, but she really wished someone would just settle her down. Or tell her she's pretty.

She felt a presence behind her, and she turned slowly around to see it. It turned out to just be Reis. Kylie sighed.

"Just a little jumpy today, aren't we?" Reis asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or are you always like this?"

"Nope, it's just that you caught me thinking," Kylie said. "I knew I smelled something burning." This elicited no response from Reis, and Kylie whistled low and smacked her lips.

"No sense of humor on this one," she said playfully. "Don't you ever have fun Reis?"

"Or course," Reis said. "Fighting is exhilarating. I thoroughly enjoy it every time we fight."

"No, no," Kylie continued, swiping her hand at Reis. "I mean outside of battle. Don't you and Beowulf go to plays or something?"

"Sometimes we stay up all night and watch the sunset," Reis said. "Although I don't expect we'll have much time for that from now on."

"Why?" Kylie asked naïvely, and then her face lit up and her jaw dropped. "Oh my god!"

"Don't tell Beowulf," Reis asked, rubbing her stomach. "If he found out from you, I think he might take it hard. I mean, he freaked out when I told him that I thought I loved him all those years ago. He spooks easily about these things."

"I promise not to tell," Kylie said, and crossed her heart. "Can I feel it?"

"Feel him," Reis corrected. "It's going to be a boy."

"How can you know that?" Kylie marveled. "Let me guess: Dragoner instinct right?"

"No," Reis shook her head. "Maternal."

Later on, they pulled into the rundown port on the edge of the Deep Dungeon, and there they saw a lone figure that Kylie didn't recognize. He looked about Beowulf's age, dressed in Priest's robes. He wore an evil smirk.

"Hello Reis, Beowulf," the figure said, keeping that evil smirk. Reis was in disbelief, while Beowulf looked daggers at the man.

"Hello Buremonda."

A/N: So, Buremonda's back? Heavy. Obviously, Masahiro and Malak will play a bigger role than I originally intended them to. I know no one will ever like my generics as much as I do, so I will try to keep their appearances equal to those everyone recognizes. The spells Melissa casts are Latin, obviously, and they mean "God shall burn the earth!" and "Evil is the earth, cover the earth in darkness!" The relationships between Malak and Chris, Ramza and Agrias, and Olan and Balmafula will make more frequent appearances because I like them. And who would have expected Daniel turning? No one, because he isn't around long enough for you to guess he's evil. Xenogears fans may smell a Hammer (Melissa). And the plot will continue to thicken.

A note about Alma: I hate her. More than any of the other characters in the game. She will not appear much. She's useless. I hate her.


	22. Chapter 21: The Artifacts of Ajora

"Rise and shine everybody," Ramza yelled, clanging the bell in the mess hall in an effort to wake up the crew. "We're at Goug."

Everyone groggily assembled on the main deck to yell at him, but after a few moments, everyone gave up and went back into their rooms to go back to sleep. Ramza's head fell into his hands and he groaned.

"Everybody, get back up here," he said, annoyed, and they turned around, equally annoyed.

"Ramza," Balmafula complained, unaware she was giving away her position. "We're all tired. Can't we have a few more hours?"

"Hey, when did she get on the boat?" Meliadoul asked, pointing at Balmafula.

"Um…" Balmafula started, and then turned around and bolted for the cabins. Meliadoul ran after her, screaming something about 'stowaways' and 'freeloaders'.

"Really Ramza," Ophelia said, yawning. "It's three o'clock in the morning. If you give us a few more hours of sleep, and wake us up at seven or eight o'clock, then we might be more receptive to your crazy demands." She yawned again.

"Fine," Ramza replied, crossing his arms and trying badly to hide the fact that he was very pissed off. "A few more hours. But I'll go and find this new mode of transportation."

"Good luck finding your way to it," Mustadio yawned. "We hid it in the outskirts of town somewhere. Father and I are the only ones who know where it is, and we're both going back to bed. If you want to find it, we wait until morning."

Everyone went back into their cabins to get some more sleep. Ramza saw his authority falling apart and ran up to Orlandu.

"Sir Orlandu," Ramza asked frantically, grabbing at his sleeve. "You agree that we must find Mustadio's new mode of transportation and get to Nelveska as soon as possible, right?"

"Yes," Orlandu said, and Ramza's eyes lit up. "However, I also believe that if your warriors are as tired as we are right now, they'll be useless to you. Let us sleep."

Ramza grumbled and muttered something about sloth being a deadly sin, but he eventually gave up and went back to his own cabin to get some sleep.

"Come now, you don't look happy to see me," Buremonda said, walking closer to Reis. "I figured you'd be happy to see your old comrade, Beow."

"Get out of here Buremonda," Beowulf said, and drew the fabled Ragnarök. "And we will spare you the defeat you so richly deserve."

"My dear Beowulf," said the fallen priest, moving closer to Reis, who looked like she was trying to set him on fire with her eyes, which she could probably very well do. "If you couldn't even defeat me when you were at your most powerful, how can you hope to defeat me now, even with this… riffraff."

This enraged everyone, and Kylie pulled out her double Chaos Blades that were thrown at them by mercenary Ninjas in the Deep Dungeon underground, Strawberry pulled out the Mace of Zeus, and Reis simply stood there. Beowulf pushed the Ragnarök in front of Kylie and Strawberry, and they looked at him in confusion.

"He's made some sort of deal with Lucavi," Beowulf said, looking back at Buremonda. "If he gives Lucavi the Holy Dragon, Lucavi will give him eternal life."

"Very good," Buremonda said, grinning. "Where'd you find that out? Oh, no, don't tell me, your local library?"

"Well, close," Beowulf said, putting the Ragnarök back down. "When Ramza went to Murond, I left and searched the libraries for any sort of clue to my lost sword, Hrunting. And I found a demon who's perks matched those I had seen so long ago when you turned Reis into a dragon. You sold your soul for the chance to get me out of the picture and be with Reis, but did you ever stop to think what the demon wants with the Holy Dragon?"

"He will devour her," Buremonda said, looking at Reis. "Which means he will get rid of the curse of the Holy Dragon. Which means it will just be Reis. Which means that I will be able to be with my Reis forever."

"You're insane," Kylie said in disbelief. Then, against Beowulf's protests, she charged forward, and swung both Chaos Blades right at his head. Both blades bounced off his skin harmlessly. Kylie looked frightened.

"Please," Buremonda said. "The Chaos Blade? It's a toy. Let me show you what a real weapon can do." He pulled a slender, sliver blade with two black orbs symbolizing the death of both man and beast on the hilt from his robes and waved it in front of Beowulf.

"That's my sword!" Beowulf yelled. "That's Hrunting!" This threw the five warriors into a frenzy, and they charged at one another. Reis breathed a jet of ice-blue fire at the black priest while Strawberry charged a summon. Buremonda swung the sword directly in the path of the blue fire and split it right down the middle. The flames went to either side of him, and he walked harmlessly through them. He swung the sword at Strawberry in an attempt to stop her summon, but Kylie caught the blade with her double Chaos Blades, saving Strawberry's life. She pushed the Hrunting upwards, and the blade flew out of Buremonda's hands. He growled in frustration.

"If I can't have her," he said, and jumped over Kylie and Beowulf to Reis. "No one can. She will be the fuel. We need the fuel." He grabbed her by the wrist, and looked her deep in the eyes. Reis smiled, and Beowulf looked like he might be sick. Then, Reis opened her mouth and a red jet of fire erupted from her mouth. Buremonda's entire upper body was engulfed in flame, and when Reis's attack dissipated, he merely blinked, and wiped a chunk of brimstone from his eye.

"Nice try my love," Buremonda cooed. "But burning me only makes me love you even more. You always attack the people you love, dear Reis. Come with me to Nelveska Island, and we will rule this world together, you and I."

He held her hands up to his heart, and gently kissed them. Then they disappeared.

"If you want her back sinner," the voice of Buremonda resounded throughout the lighthouse. "Follow me to Nelveska. I will kill you there and take back what belongs to me."

Beowulf picked up Hrunting and looked at it for a bit. Kylie and Strawberry walked up to him, looking apologetic.

"Beowulf," Kylie started, but Beowulf turned around.

"The Hrunting can hurt him," Beowulf said. "That's why he wanted it. He figures that he's safe holed up in Nelveska Temple, but we'll go for him. We're coming for you Verden Buremonda!"

"That's all very heroic," Kylie offered, sheathing her Chaos Blades. "But how exactly are we going to get to-"

Out of the lighthouse window jumped a young female a small, lithe but muscular form with milky white skin. She had a full-length, translucent blue skirt going down to her ankles. Her sleeves, starting at her breasts, were the same color and style and were outlined with dark brown leather. She wore fingerless maroon leather gauntlets and what appeared to be a bronze necklace with three sections of bronze with four spheres inset on each one. Her leather shoes were laced up to just below her knee, and her mythril sword rested safely in it's sheath. Her neat dark brown hair was mostly tied back into a ponytail, except for two wispy strands that refused to be tied back. But the strangest thing was the Ring she wore on her right hand. She stood up, strangely unharmed after jumping out of a hundred-foot lighthouse, and pulled her sword out of it's sheath and pointed it at the three heroes.

"Prepare to die Acolytes of Ajora!"

Christine awoke in a cell with a throbbing headache. She rubbed her head and looked at her surroundings. She was in a small, dingy cage with metal bars and chains strapped to the wall. She saw in the cell next to her knives, whips, head clamps, and all other manners of torture devices one could imagine. It filled her with fear, but she wouldn't show it. It wasn't her way. Which made the whole Malak thing even more disturbing.

But this wasn't even close to the time to think about this. She was trapped in, Ajora knows where, and she was in some sort of cell. And there were two woman lying next to her. One she recognized, one she didn't. The one she recognized was the young Dragoner, what was her name? Reis. Reis Dular.

'Soon to be Reis Kadmas,' she thought as she tried to shake her awake. Reis's cat-like dragon eyes snapped open, and she growled at Christine, and she backed off.

"Don't touch me!" Reis yelled, apparently having one of her trademark mood swings. Rafa had told her that Beowulf was having problems with Reis ever since she had turned back into a dragon. One minute, she was the happy-go-lucky, bubbly, slightly grate on your nerves girl that he knew and the next… Well, it was like she had regressed back to being the Holy Dragon again. Buremonda had damaged her irreparably. Other than these mood swings and her newfound Dragoner powers, no one quite knew the extent the effect of the sudden change from dragon back to girl that Reis underwent had on her.

The other girl that Christine didn't recognize wore the yellow and blue robes of a Calculator. She had brown hair, but her eyes were closed because she was unconscious. Christine went over and shook her too. The girl woke up and looked at her.

"Where are we?" She asked, pulling a hairpin out of her robes and putting her hair up in a bun like all Calculators like. Christine looked around and shook her head.

"I don't know," she replied wistfully. Reis stood up and shuffled over to the other two girls. Then she decided to find out who this girl was, and asked her questions in a pleasant tone. "Who are you and what did you do to the Acolytes to get thrown in here?"

"I might ask you the same question," the Calculator replied, pulling herself up off the floor and onto the small cot that served as a bed. "I mean, for all I know, you two could be dangerous assassins."

"You know," Reis growled. "That assumption is not that far from the truth."

"Reis," Christine chided. "My boyfriend, excuse me, my friend Malak had some sort of Mirror that the Acolytes wanted, and Reis, well, I don't know quite why she's here."

"Who's Reis?" the girl asked.

"Oh my gosh, how rude of me," Christine said, and her face turned a light shade of crimson. She held her hand out and introduced herself and Reis. "I'm Christine Vance, and this is Reis Dular."

"Miranda Sandross," the girl replied, and shook her hand. "My sister Dru stumbled on something, a sword with the crest of Virgo on it. She gave it to me, and I was kidnapped by an athletic red-head wearing mostly leather. I tossed it to my sister before I was kidnapped, and now she has it. She's probably coming for me right now."

"She better not be," Reis said, still in a tiff from earlier. "Or she'd better have help. Have you seen the defenses on this place? It's magically reinforced, and there are Tiamats guarding every entrance. And I think they rewired Worker 7-new. Neither Beowulf nor your sister will be coming for us. We've got to escape on our own."

"Did your Beowulf promise he'd come for you?" Miranda asked, not aware of the intense relationship Reis shared with her fiancé.

"He was challenged by an old enemy," Reis said, and both women realized she was not going to tell them who this 'old enemy' was. "But he won't come for us. Come on, they left us in a cage we could easily break out of."

"Probably on purpose," Miranda scoffed, and Reis looked death at her, so Miranda backed off. Reis blew a concentrated breath of fire on the lock, and it melted away and the cell door popped open.

"If you're afraid Miranda" Christine whispered as she walked out of the cell. "Just stick between us."

"Ah see ya got oot of me cell," a gruff voice replied directly in front of them. He was a stout, muscular man who was only about half Christine's size. He was covered from head to toe in forest green armor, complete with a green helmet with tannish horns, and carried a wicked looking axe that looked like it could cut through all three of them in one swipe. Naturally, they were careful of this tiny man. "But thas alright. It was made for yur escape."

Miranda shot Reis a look, and Reis was clearly not in the mood to hear the words 'I told you so'.

Fully rested after Ramza's early wake up call, Meliadoul rose from her bed and walked out onto the deck of the ship as the other walked off the boarding plank into the Goug City port. She decided to stick around for a moment and breathe in the salty sea air. It was so beautiful. She never understood how people could get seasick. The ocean was so soothing. Cloud had a major case of seasickness. He was still throwing up. And this was Orlandu's favorite, his 'prodigy'. Orlandu had been teaching his swordskills to Cloud, Agrias, and Meliadoul in the past few months. Cloud had already mastered the Dark Knight skills and was plowing through her own at an alarming speed. She and Agrias were still learning the most basic of Orlandu's skills: Dark Sword. Add Orlandu's power to Cloud's limit breaks, and he was one formidable opponent. This angered Meliadoul. She had trained for years to learn those skills, and this upstart was learning them in a few months. She and Agrias were becoming obsolete.

"Hey Mel," Agrias shouted back at her, and this snapped her out of her thoughts. "Are you coming to Mustadio's house or what?"

Meliadoul shook her head.

"No," she replied like Agrias was the dumbest person on the face of the earth. "I'm going to Murond."

Agrias nodded and followed the rest of the group going directly to Nelveska to Mustadio's house in the slums of Goug. When they got there, she was surprised at what she saw. Behind Mustadio's house was a great workshop, probably built with the money Mustadio sent home. He never kept any of his share of the loot when they defeated another clan or group of monsters, but sent it home to his father. Inside dead center of this gigantic behemoth of a garage sat a huge machine covered by a cloth.

"Father and I were going to make the big unveiling next week," Mustadio said. "But then we went to Orbonne and fought Altima, and now this whole business with the Acolytes, I think we should give you guys a special sneak preview." He walked over to a cord dangling at the side of the mysterious object.

"Mustadio," Besrodio said from behind Ramza. He asked him as if he already knew the answer because Mustadio was already there. "Would you like to do the honors?" Mustadio nodded eagerly, and pulled the cord. As it descended, it revealed a huge sideways balloon on the top with what looked like a carriage on the bottom for holding people. It was so large it took Agrias's breath away and left her with only a surprised smile on her face.

"Isn't she a beaut?" Mustadio said like a kid who just unwrapped his new Christmas present. "I call her the Hindenburg. Wanna take her for a test ride?"

Everyone piled on the Hindenburg, and Besrodio, who had come along to pilot the airship, opened the roof of the enormous garage and flew the Hindenburg into the skies.

Meliadoul stood on the deck of the boat that frankly she was getting pretty sick of sailing around in. She rolled her eyes as Ophelia walked up to her.

"Are you as sick of all this boring sailing as I am?" Ophelia asked, nudging Meliadoul in the arm, and she nodded wordlessly. "Well, I've got the cure for that. Haste!"

She slammed her fist down on the boat, and it glowed orange. The boat suddenly sped up and they reached the Murond Holy place before noon, at the cost of a few people's breakfasts.

Meliadoul stumbled off the ship and looked around. It hadn't changed much. It was still bloody from the fight Vormav had started here. All the priests bodies were still there. Funeral's body was probably still inside the Temple. She and Cloud followed Ophelia and Orlandu, the Byblos had decided to stay and guard the ship to secure their probable retreat, into the main chapel, most of them still the color of Meliadoul's cloak. The Chapel of the Temple was still the same as well. The table in the middle of the room that Meliadoul had always thought looked like a coffin, the golden candlesticks, the dim lighting. Everything was just as they had left it. It was a little eerie.

Meliadoul saw a shadow move into the next room, so she ran after it. Her hood fell off her head, revealing her raven hair that she kept pinned up on her head, but right now she had other worries. She made it into the next room and saw a familiar body in golden armor and a gray cloak knelt down by the fireplace. Her eyes flashed when she realized who it must be.

"Hello Kletian."

The sorcerer spun around, Mace of Zeus gripped tensely in his white knuckles, and then he relaxed when he saw Meliadoul. His brown eyes twinkled in the firelight, as did Meliadoul's.

"What are you doing here, Mel," he asked, more of a statement than a question.

"I might ask you the same question," she replied, raising an eyebrow and advancing on him, her hand on her sword.

"Come on Mel," Kletian said, taking a step forward. "Is this what we've been reduced to? Are we really going to fight? After all, we were friends once."

"I'm looking for clues to the Acolytes of Ajora," Meliadoul said, deciding that he could be trusted. "And also anything else of interest here."

"Such as…" Kletian implored subtly.

"I don't know," Meliadoul said, running her fingers through her hair before putting the cloak back over her exposed hair, the threat averted. "I just thought that since these Acolytes worship Ajora, and she was a big part of the Glabados church, maybe there was something here that could help us."

"Well, if you're willing to work with me I think I might have found something that could help," Kletian offered. "Your father said that if Ajora's resurrection didn't go as planned we should seek out the Acolytes." Meliadoul was a little shocked. Her father had never told her that. But then again, her father never told her about Ajora because he knew she wouldn't help him if she knew.

"I'm listening," Meliadoul said, hoping the others wouldn't find her and steal Kletian's trust. She knew that she was pretty much the only person left on earth that Kletian really trusted. If Ophelia, Orlandu or Cloud came in they could blow the only shot she had of finding out if Kletian knew anything.

"I was reading through the libraries in the basement," Kletian continued. Meliadoul walked up to him with an annoyed look on her face and she pulled his grey hood over his head. Kletian continued his speech as if nothing had happened, like he didn't even notice. "And I found that the Acolytes are demons in human form, like Celia and Lede, summoned from the netherworlds directly upon Ajora's death. They are powerful and dangerous, and their leader is called Valdorna. She's a dangerous assassin with a silk tongue. She's deceived a great many warriors to work for her by promising them power or acceptance."

"Melissa…" Meliadoul said wistfully and Kletian furrowed his brow as if to ask if something was wrong. Meliadoul shook her head. "It's nothing. Was there anything else? Like what we should look out for or how to defeat them?"

"Well, I don't know about that," Kletian replied, pulling a book out from the stack and opening it up to a book marked page. "But I found this passage from 'The Story of the Zodiac Braves Volume XIII: Altima' that might be helpful. It reads: 'Should the Holy Arch Angel ever fall in combat, her angels will bring her weapons to her resting place and she will be resurrected. At that time, her angels will be blessed, and she will bring peace to the world.' It goes on to list the specific details of the resurrection, but that's not something we'll need unless we want her to come and destroy the world again."

"Why didn't Vormav use them the first time?" Meliadoul asked because her father had not told her much of his goings on with the Shrine Knights. She went where she was told, and killed who she was told to kill. "You were more keyed in to these things than I was. Father never told me anything."

"I don't know," Kletian pondered, noticing his hood was up and pulling his hood back down off his head. "As you no doubt remember, Rofel was the one in charge of the information department. He was the one doing the research, and he must have had a good reason for keeping it from us. Stop putting my hood up. It's so damn annoying. It messes up my hair."

"Is your hair really that important?" Meliadoul said, shooting him a look and raising an eyebrow. "Look, it's disrespectful to God to wear your hood with your hair showing."

"Only if you're a woman," Kletian shot back, and Meliadoul shot him a death look. Kletian swallowed and backed off. Meliadoul decided that it was time to focus on the mission again instead of her pet peeves.

"So, what do you think these 'four weapons' are?" Meliadoul asked, and she saw Ophelia advancing on her position. She obviously saw Kletian because she went back for Cloud and Sir Orlandu.

"Well, the clues indicate that they aren't really weapons, but just magical objects," Kletian said, flipping through the manuscript. "It said that there was a Mirror, a Ring, a Pendant, and a Staff. The Mirror was hidden in the Deep Dungeon lighthouse but it was moved by Elibidis to one of the deeper floors, the Ring was given to a prominent Zarghidian family called the Sandrosses, the Pendant was hidden in the Nelveska Temple, and the Staff is supposed to be here in Murond."

"But you haven't found it yet," Meliadoul asked. "We should go look for it."

"No need," a voice said from behind them. He was standing in the doorway with Ophelia. Orlandu and Cloud were nowhere to be found. The figure wore golden armor with a red surplice. His brown hair was slicked back and his brown eyes were commanding and powerful. He held a wooden staff topped with a skull in his hands. "I just found it."

"While you were in here flirting with Kletian," Ophelia said, spitting after she said the name Kletian. She must have picked it up from Agrias and Meliadoul. "We explored part of the Temple and found him. King Delita." Delita bowed his head in their direction.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Rafa and the others appeared right in front of the Temple, the place where they found Worker 7-new the first time they were here. Rafa remembered because she had come to look for the Ultimate Javelin and the Golden Escutcheon. There was one thing here that she didn't recognize however. She saw that there were an unusual amount of flowers growing in the courtyard that weren't there before. The others followed behind her and walked into the shrine where Worker 7-new had been found. There they saw a small necklace in the shape of a blue teardrop. Rafa knew she had seen that somewhere before. She shook her head, but decided that it was pretty and she was going to take it with her.

'No sense leaving it here,' she thought to herself as she clasped it around her neck.

"What a bad girl she is," a voice behind her said. "Stealing from the dead." Rafa whipped around and saw a tiny dark-skinned woman wearing a blue dress with a golden plate on her shoulders for protection. She held an oaken staff that glowed with the light of a light blue jewel on its tip. Her helmet was the color of the ocean, deep blue with a hint of green.

"Perhaps we should punish her," another voice boomed next to the mage. It was a giant man with flaming red hair and fiery armor. He carried an enormous flaming sword on his shoulder. His black boots commanded respect. Malak and the others ran up behind them.

"Rafa!" Malak shouted, trying to see past the two strangely dressed people. She stood on tiptoe and waved to him to tell him she was alright. Then she looked at the two new warriors standing in front of them.

"Who are you?" Rafa asked, trying to hide the quaking fear in her voice. "And what do you want with me?"

"We want your necklace," the woman said simply. "As for our names, why don't you defeat us and find out." She charged up a spell in her staff and blasted Rafa into the wall behind her with a torrent of water. That was when all hell broke loose. Luna unleashed her Life Drain spell on the mage while Masahiro knocked an arrow in his bow. Gene sort of ran away and hid outside. Rafa got up, soaked to the bone.

"Fine, you want water?" she said charging up a spell. "I'll give you water! Leviathan!" A large sea dragon materialized behind her and rushed a torrent of water against everyone else. Everyone but the water mage was knocked back. She laughed.

"Foolish human," she said with a sneer. "You can't defeat me with my own element." She broke the wave with her staff, and all the water around her froze in a eerily beautiful ice sculpture. It consequently froze all the others in their spots. No one could move except the water mage, and now the fire warrior who had melted the ice around him and escaped his icy prison.

"Well, perhaps you want to give up," the water mage said cockily, sauntering over to her captive prisoners. "Or maybe you'd like to give us the necklace and we'll let you go."

"Never," Rafa said, spying Gene out of the corner of her eye and trying desperately to draw the attention of the two warriors. "Because you forgot one thing: There were five of us."

Gene threw the spear he had held in his hands at the water mage, but the warrior pushed her out of the way just in time and it pierced him through the shoulder. He winced in pain, and the mage knelt down to cradle his head. He pulled the spear out of his chest.

"Jeriacor," she said, terrified at the thought of losing him. "Sh, it's okay. Here, I'll heal you." She held her hand up to his chest, and his wounds healed. The mage looked like she was in pain as she healed him. Rafa surmised that she was giving of her own life energy to heal her companion. She guessed that they must be lovers, from the way she rushed to his side, and also because of the clear blue crystal set on the warrior's forehead was the same color as the jewel on the mage's staff.

"You," the mage said as the air around her thickened and became moist. "You will pay for hurting my Jeriacor." She thrust the staff in the direction of Gene, but he ducked out of the way just in time and the spell bounced off some of the ice and redirected itself to the back of Rafa's head. Rafa felt her lungs fill up with water. She knew this type of spell from her studies in Riovones' vast libraries. This was an ancient torture spell, lost to most archives, but the Riovones libraries were almost as extensive as the libraries in Orbonne. Her lungs would fill with water over the course of a few hours, and then she'd drown.

The mage smiled sadistically and vanished into thin air as the ice melted around the captives. Malak ran over to his sister and watched her choking to death.

"I've read about this sort of thing," Luna said, running over to her also. "I think it's an ancient torture spell. Vianthan if I'm not mistaken. It's a water-based spell that slowly fills the victims lungs up with water and they drown. Not over a matter of minutes, like normal, but the pain is drawn out to hours. If we can find the source of that Water Mages' power and destroy it, than we can save Rafa."

"So if we kill the mage than we save Rafa?" Malak asked bluntly, and Luna nodded and started to speak, but Malak had already started to sprint towards the enormous tower spiraling to the sky. It disappeared into the clouds.

"Malak!" Malak…" Luna sighed. "Gene and I will stay will stay here with Rafa. Masahiro, you follow him, keep him out of trouble. I'll do my best to keep her alive as long as possible. Just help him out and we'll yell at him for being rash tomorrow later."

Masahiro nodded and ran after Malak as Luna waved her hands over Rafa's lungs as she tried desperately to breathe.

A/N: Wow, that was long and involved. Before I forget, I want to draw your attention to two motifs that I'm trying to work into this story. Watch for the color silver, it's been touched on in the earlier chapters, and also watch for Meliadoul and her obsession with the Shrine Knight hoods, both Kletian's and her own. Try to figure out what they best represent. Prize for the first to get it. Not sure what it is yet, but I'll figure something out. I'm trying to make my writing smarter by putting symbols and motifs and all those other neat literary stuff in it.

I really wasn't planning on expanding this story as much as I did. There will be even more to follow, and I'll resolve some of these cliffhangers.


	23. Chapter 22: The Face of the Enemy

Christine looked from the stout dwarven warrior to Reis, who was as expressionless as usual. But Christine knew from being friends with Ramza and the others to know that Reis was probably as terrified as Miranda and herself.

"Back off Gamling," a voice came from the shadows. A pair of black leather boots stepped out of the darkness and stood about shoulder width apart. "It seems we have some visitors near the western shrine. Two Oracles and a Heaven Knight. Go deal with them. I think I can handle a couple of girls." The dwarf went into the shadows and down the stairs.

"Well," the figure shrouded in darkness continued. "It appears I finally have you all to myself. Do you know who I am? I am the greatest thief of all time: the Golden Key Valdorna. I can pick any lock, break into any safe, and steal any treasure. Including that of the ancient Sandross family. Or so I thought. I figured if I stole the sister, the treasure would come running. But it seems that Drusilla is smarter than that. She has realized, as I'm sure you have also, that as long as she stays away, you'll be alive. But I have a little surprise for you." The figure that had identified herself as Valdorna continued to step out of the shadows. Christine could now see that her boots went all the way up to her thighs and a pair of tight leather shorts almost connected them, revealing a ring of tanned skin around her thighs.

There was something hanging from the left side of her waist that particularly caught Christine's attention. It was a blade in the shape of a perfect circle, and it had arcane designs that Christine guessed must symbolize death or thievery based on the nature of its owner. She must have stared at it for a while, because the voice from the shadows commented on it.

"I notice you're eyeing the Chakram of Entropy," she said, stepping further out of the shadows revealing that her leather "shorts" were not shorts at all, but rather a skirt made out of strips of leather (a la Xena) as well as her tight, black belly shirt with major cleavage. Silver gauntlets covered her hands and met at the point between her pointer and middle finger on each hand. Her face was the only thing still left in shadow. "It's an ancient weapon from the time of the great mage Balkoth. He ruled Ivalice with an iron fist, and his servants were four warriors: One from the lands of men, one from the dwarves, one from the giants, and one from the Vianthan Amazons. They were corrupted by his great power, and soon their souls had completely dissolved. They were replaced by me."

She finally stepped fully out of the shadows. She was a lithe, attractive woman with flaming red hair put into a ponytail that began at the top of her head and fell down the back of her head. She had crystal blue eyes that were eerily beautiful in their own way. They seemed to sparkle with a childlike playfulness that did not fit Valdorna's personality at all. She had a strange attractiveness to her. Christine wasn't quite sure what it was exactly, but there was something about this strange woman.

"I am Valdorna. Well, I am now anyway. And you should fear my power!" She launched into an attack and brought out the Chakram, slicing it right for Christine's throat. Christine ducked back and fell to the floor as Miranda ran for the exit. Reis pulled out her FS Bag and struck Valdorna in the side of the head with it, and she was knocked backwards. Christine got next to Reis and prepared to fight back. Valdorna got up and faced the two other women. She smirked and pushed a rock in the side of the wall. A hole opened up beneath Reis and Christine and they fell through.

"Welcome to a more permanent prison ladies. I trust you'll find it a bit less escapable the other one," Valdorna cooed, looking up at them from the only square of light visible from the large hole the two had been dropped in. "Sleep tight my lovelies." The light began to disappear as Valdorna closed the hole again. Christine looked up as the image of the red-headed woman disappeared for good, and she was surrounded on all sides by darkness.

Then, she panicked.

"Where did you come from?" Kylie asked playfully, as if no one was pointing a sword at her throat. She bounced over to the mysterious woman clad in translucent blue. "Who are you?"

"Get away from me filth," the woman replied, and she swung her slender sword at Kylie. Kylie blocked the blow and caught the sword between her Chaos Blades.

"Come on now," Kylie whined, launching her sword back at the woman. "Don't be antisocial. Especially to someone who's, oh I don't know, not in anyway affiliated with the Acolytes."

"Liar!" The woman launched back at Kylie. Beowulf swung his Hrunting in her direction and cast one of his Status spells on her. Her arms dropped uselessly to her side and her sword fell to the ground.

"It's a truly wonderful spell, Don't Act," Beowulf said, very calm for the situation. "Now, you don't seem to be evil, and we are not the Acolytes of Ajora. Now, I'll ask you the same question posed by my companion, who are you?"

"Eat my sword filthy evil doers," she replied, and attempted to pick the sword up with her droopy arms. Strawberry held up her arms, muttered a few words, and then the woman dropped to the ground, her legs useless. She said something, but it was muffled by the dark brown hair that she had swallowed when she fell. Kylie smiled and turned her on her back and sat her against the edge of the lighthouse. "Why must you insist on bothering me? Just give me back my sister!"

"What?" Strawberry said, walking up to the woman and kneeling down in front of her. "They've got your sister?"

"What do you mean 'they' filth?" the woman spat. "Don't you mean 'We've got your sister'? Since you are the Acolytes?"

"God dammit," Kylie blew up. "We are not the fucking Acolytes of Ajora! Get that through your fucking head!" She looked at her other two companions and they seemed frightened. "I'm sorry. I guess I lost my temper for a moment."

"So, you're not the Acolytes," the woman asked questioningly. "Then what are you doing here? Are you looking for the Mirror too?"

"We already found the Mirror," Strawberry said. "And we gave it to someone who I know would never give it to the wrong sort of people. It will never fall into the hands of these 'Acolytes' you speak of. Just calm down and tell me what you're looking for. You can trust me."

The woman sighed and looked Strawberry. She pulled a Ring out of the pocket in her shirt. "I don't know why I'm trusting you, but you make me feel… safe. My name is Drusilla Sandross. Since the first time Ajora rose, my family was entrusted with this Ring. That thief, Valdorna, the head of the Acolytes, came to my house and offered me a trade. The Ring for our lives. I refused, and they kidnapped my sister Miranda. They're on Nelveska. I was hoping to find the Mirror of Ajora here and trade it for my sister."

"We'll go there and rescue your sister," Strawberry assured her. "You can trust us."

"Please," a female voice shouted from the top of the lighthouse. "That is such a trite, overused line. 'You can trust me!' Pathetic." Beowulf looked up to the top of the lighthouse, and he saw a familiar blonde-haired knight perched on it. She had dark skin, but not to the extent of Rafa and Malak's. It was more of an tan color. She jumped gracefully down and landed almost cat-like on her feet. As she stood up, Beowulf know where he recognized her from. The curled blonde hair, the grungy look of her camouflage clothes, the swords crossed in an 'x' on her back, the smug smirk. "Hey Beow."

Kylie didn't know Beowulf very well, actually, Reis was the only one who knew him at all. But she could tell when someone was familiar with him. All his old friends called him 'Beow'. A gesture of familiarity and friendship.

"Do you know this woman?" Kylie asked, taking a step towards Beowulf.

"Kylie, Strawberry, Drusilla," Beowulf began. "I would like you to meet an old friend of mine: Tara Richardson."

"Hi, I'm Kylie," Kylie offered her hand out in friendship, totally unaware, as usual, that there was any danger involved in her actions. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good," the manly yet attractive woman nodded, drawing her swords from her back. "I feel good. I feel like kicking some hypocrite ass. What'd you say ladies? Want to help me finish him off?"

"Hey, Beow is our friend," Strawberry retorted. "And I won't let you hurt him."

"He's not my friend," Drusilla replied.

"Bring it on," Tara said, taking a step towards Strawberry. "Beow is a lying bastard. He stole my Buremonda from me."

"Wait, wait, wait," Kylie said, throwing her hands in the air. "Beow slept with Buremonda?"

"What is the matter with her?" Tara asked, and Beowulf shrugged and shook his head. Strawberry was also confused, and Beowulf looked at her and rolled his eyes.

"Buremonda loves Reis, and she's with me. Tara always saw that as me stealing Buremonda from her," Beowulf explained. "Because she loves him, and he loves Reis."

"I don't have time for a soap opera," Drusilla muttered, sheathing her sword and walking towards a boat she had docked at the far edge of the lighthouse island. "I have to go find my sister."

"I can take you to her," Tara yelled after Drusilla, and the mysterious woman stopped. Tara raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"I'm listening," Drusilla replied slowly. Strawberry looked to Kylie for some sort of moral support, but Kylie just shrugged. She bit her lip and waited for what Tara was about to say.

"I'll open the portal to the Nelveska Temple if you leave Beow here with me," Tara offered calmly, and Dru shook her head. That was when Strawberry just lost it.

"How could you even think that?" she yelled at the dark-haired stranger. "I know your sister means a lot to you, but you can't just sacrifice Beow to save her. We'll find a way together. Please, stay with us. We'll get there in time."

"You stupid, foolish optimist," Drusilla replied, emotionless. "Do you really think life is that simple? If we traveled together, we'd only just be too late to save Miranda and then I'd have my sister's blood on my hands. Do you really think we can get there in time to save her any other way? You're so naïve. Naivety is a dangerous emotion. It has been the downfall of many a great warrior. Do you remember Balbanes Beoulve? His trust in his dark, disturbed son led to his death. His horrible, painful death by poison. I'm going to Nelveska, and we're leaving him here."

Tara snapped her fingers, and a black hole opened up in the side of the lighthouse. Without hesitating, Drusilla ran for the hole and leapt inside. Kylie ran after her, and Strawberry began to follow, but stopped. She looked back at Beowulf, but her shook his head and waved her on. She bit her lip again, and jumped after Drusilla and Kylie into the portal. The black hole closed up and Tara faced her old classmate.

"Alone at last, handsome," she said, brandishing her weapons. "Now we can settle our score."

Malak jumped up the steps in the far tower of the Nelveska Temple area three or four at a time. A flight or so behind him was a very winded Masahiro.

"My God Malak," Masahiro panted, barely able to keep up. "How can you possibly run this fast?"

"I think the question is why can't you?" Malak retorted, looking over his shoulder. Since he didn't watch where he was going, he slammed right into the Fire warrior Jeriacor from earlier. Behind him was the very sickly looking water mage. He had a wicked smile on his face as he brought his sword up over Malak's head and swung it down. Fortunately, Masahiro had already caught up with him and pulled Malak to safety at the last moment. Malak now growled something incomprehensible and drew his Rune Blade. He brought it up to strike the fire giant in the face, but he easily parried it.

"Puny little mage," he replied, and kicked Malak into Masahiro, and both young men toppled backwards down the stairs. "You will pay for what you did to my Vysantha. I'm far too strong to be beaten by a wizard and an archer."

"Then perhaps we should even the odds," Malak heard a young girl's voice echo from behind the giant. It was a dark-haired girl dressed in the robes of a Calculator, but her hair was down instead of up in a bun. She had no weapon whatsoever, and that made Malak wonder how much help she could possibly be.

"This is you evening the odds?" The giant boomed, his deep voice shaking the rafters. "A girl? This is the most pathetic force I've ever seen." The giant turned around and went pale.

"Damn straight," the Calculator said. "Who's pathetic now Jeriacor?"

"M-miss Miranda," the huge man stuttered. "H-how did you get out of your cell?"

"A friendly young woman let me out," the calculator replied. She reached her hand out, and his flaming sword immediately fizzled out. He looked at it in horror as it seemed to get bigger in his hands when in reality, he was getting smaller. He was now the same height as Masahiro. Vysantha, the water mage, tried to hit her over the head with her staff, but the calculator caught it and hit the mage in the stomach with her elbow. Vysantha flew backwards into the wall. The calculator stepped down the stairs with a smug look on her face and Vysantha's staff in one hand. He charged at her, but she just put up her hand and he bounced off of an invisible force field and he fell backwards towards Masahiro and Malak. The blue circlet on his head fell off on his way down. Malak grabbed it and snapped it in half. Vysantha screamed in pain and began to convulse on the floor. Finally, she arched her back climactically and let out one last powerful scream, and collapsed dead on the floor.

"That should end the spell," Malak said happily. He rushed back down the stairs.

"Wait Malak," Masahiro yelled half-heartedly after him, but then he just waved him away and concentrated on the much more interesting mystery of this strange Calculator.

"My name is Masahiro O'Bannon," Masahiro said, offering her his hand. Malak had either found a window and saw that she was okay or he realized that he should stick with Masahiro. "What's yours?"

"My name is Miranda Sandross," she said, shaking his hand. "I came from upstairs where there are right this moment two women being held in Valdorna's prisons. We have to go save them."

"Who are they?" Malak asked.

"Does it matter?" Miranda asked desperately. "Come on, they're up this way."

"You mean the only way that we didn't come from?" Malak asked condescendingly. Miranda rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs to the top of the tower. The thief who had attacked them there at first had disappeared without a trace, as had her two new friends. They searched the room for them, but found nothing. Then, Malak noticed something in the ground that looked like an outline of a door. It was made out of stone, the same stuff as the rest of the floor, so it was just barely noticeable.

"Hey, guys," he called his friends over to the outline. "I wonder what's down here?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Miranda said, and picked up a discarded lamp from the floor and began beating on the floor.

Christine and Reis waited in the dark of their prison for someone to come and save them. Reis paced around nervously in the dark until she was hit in the shoulder by Christine.

"Stop doing that," she yelled. "You would not believe how many tries it took to find you in this darkness."

"Our eyes will adjust," Reis replied bluntly.

"I have a better idea," Christine said, annoyed. "Why don't you use that famous dragon power you have and spit some fire to light this place up so we can actually see where we are."

"What if I spit the fire at you instead?" Reis replied. "That's why I don't like doing that."

"So spit it into your hand and make a torch," Christine yelled. "Do something!" Reis snapped her fingers a few times, and nothing. She snapped her fingers again, and a flicker of flame appeared in between her thumb and forefinger. She held it up to the walls, and Christine could see the creepy stones used to furnish the inside. Then she looked closer and saw that they were not stones at all: they were spiders. Spiders were the one thing that she was more afraid of than anything else. There were thousands of them, moving along the walls at an alarming rate. Not an inch of stone was showing. Christine merely stared at the wall, unable to speak. She backed slowly into Reis, who gave her a questioning look. She pointed wordlessly at the walls.

Reis, however, could see only stone.

Suddenly, one of the spiders jumped out and latched itself onto her arm. She screamed as another furry creature jumped into her hair. She tried to swat them away, but by now they had already gotten a taste for her. She was swarmed on all sides by spiders everywhere. Her entire body was fully engulfed in spiders, she reached the last part of her body that had not been covered, her right hand, out of the massive pile of furry spiders and tried to scream for help, but they climbed into her mouth too, preventing any cry for help.

Reis looked over at her companion, wondering why she was lying on the floor writhing in pain. Then she felt a tiny droplet of water fall on her head. She immediately looked to the ceiling and she saw a massive lake just sitting above her head. She looked in fear, because ever since she had been dropped in the lake and nearly died as a child, she had always been afraid of water. Her uncle was supposed to be watching her and Beowulf, but she ventured too close to the edge of the docks and fell in. If Beowulf hadn't run for her parents, she would be dead. She backed against the wall as more droplets of water fell from the ceiling, and they kept falling more and more frequently. Soon, the water was up to her ankles. She began to climb the walls, but the water dripping down it made the stones slippery, and she couldn't get a good foot hold. She fell backwards into the water.

Christine, meanwhile, was buried under a mountain of spiders. She screamed and screamed, but no sound came out, so she just decided to cry "Spiders!" over and over again. Reis just looked at her like she was crazy. There were no spiders in this hole.

"Chris," she yelled, and Christine didn't even care that she called her by her masculine name. "There are no spiders here. Just lots and lots of water." By now the water had reached her waist, and she was really beginning to panic. She jumped on Christine's back, which flattened her to the floor. Christine was panicking too, and she felt Reis on her back but was too terrified to wonder why the spiders weren't storming her too.

Then it dawned on her: none of the spiders were real. That's when she just grabbed one by it's tiny legs and looked the horrible creature right in the eyes.

"You don't scare me," she said, her voice low and pronounced. She threw it against the wall, and it splattered against it, dead. She began stomping on the disgusting monsters and they ran for the holes in the walls. She turned to Reis, who looked like she was drowning, and screamed at her.

"None of this is real," she yelled. "It's a trick of the light, or magic or something. You have to fight it Reis."

Reis was still fighting to keep the waters, which was up to her mouth, out of her lungs. She was still trying to be cool and composed, but her facial expression, or at least what she assumed Chris could see, conveyed a sense of real fear. She began to tread water to keep her head in the air. Her breath came out in short gasps because by now the fear had completely taken her over. She looked at Chris, and she was muttering something to her and gesturing for her to come down, and Reis fearfully shook her head. Chris just grabbed her leg and pulled, and Reis went under and took a breath. She could see everything above her going dark, and-

'Wait," she thought, confused. 'Nothing's happening. There is no water. Chris was right.' And with that thought, she inhaled. She didn't feel the water rushing into her lungs. She didn't feel the breath leaving her body. She was okay.

"Alright," Christine said, walking closer to Reis. "What the hell was that? And put up your fire again."

Reis snapped her fingers and threw the fire up in the air. It grew, and the entire cavernous hole lit up, somehow brighter than before. This time the whole area was visible, and the dingy walls of their prison seemed to be closing in on them. It was a little eerie. Christine noticed that Reis's clothes and hair were wet. It seems that what she had felt was real enough.

'Note to self,' she thought, making a face, and spitting on the floor. 'Brush teeth.' Reis saw the whole display and held the flame up to her hair to dry it off. She didn't think very highly of Christine. It was the whole her liking Malak thing that really turned Reis off to her. Or the whole dangerous animal experience she had. Reis never really knew what happened with that.

"So how are we getting out?" Christine snapped Reis out of her trance. Reis nodded as the ceiling shook. Well, it wasn't really the ceiling, it was actually the floor, but it shook nonetheless. Christine looked nervously around, then up at the ceiling with Reis. The ceiling shook again, and both women got into battle positions. This time, a few bricks almost fell on their heads, and through the light, they could see the face of the woman they met and had run away. What was her name? It escaped Reis's mind.

"Miranda!" Christine yelled excitedly, and her face lit up. "Thank Ajora! We're saved."

"Chrissie?" Christine heard Malak's voice coming from the hole and her face, if it was possible, lit up even more. "Here, take this rope." He fed a rope down the small hole to her, and she took a hold. Reis wrapped her arms around Christine's waist. Malak, even though he obviously lacked the upper body strength to accomplish it, attempted to pull the two women up. Masahiro saw his plight, and grabbed the rope as well. Miranda helped pull up Reis and Christine as well. Soon, they got to the small hole in the ceiling that Miranda's manic attack had produced. Miranda rolled up her sleeves and leaned down into the hole.

"Hold on to the rope," she said, and Christine nodded. "No matter what." Her hands touched the stones and mortar that made up the floor of the ancient fortress, and she closed her eyes. The stones turned gradually into dust, and Christine and Reis had to turn their head to avoid getting a mouthful of dust. Soon, there was a wide hole in the middle of the floor, and Malak and Masahiro pulled Reis and Christine up and out of the dark, dank chasm. Miranda, Masahiro, Malak, Reis, and Christine looked into the deep darkness that lay in front of them.

"Let's get out of here," Miranda suggested, and everyone else agreed. Masahiro, Reis, Malak, and Miranda headed for the doorway, but Christine stayed behind for a moment.

"Malak," she called out, and he stopped and turned towards her. "Thank you."

"Anytime," Malak said, and he smiled. "Anything for you Christine." Christine stood for a moment, just staring at him.

'He didn't call me a friend,' she thought in complete and total awe. 'My God, he didn't call me a friend. And he didn't call me Chris. Is it possible that he could-'

"Hey, Chris, Malak," Masahiro called, and both of them snapped out of their trances. "You coming?" Both people nodded, and followed their companions down the stairs.

Rafa Galthana sat up sharply and took her first real breath in about an hour. Luna and Gene looked on excitedly.

"Yay!" Luna exclaimed, grabbing tightly onto Rafa's stomach. She pressed her head a little to friendly into Rafa's chest and breathed deeply though her nose. "You're not dead!"

"Luna," Rafa asked politely. "Luna!" Luna let go and just looked at her, and Rafa shook her head. Luna made a puppy face, pleading with her, and Rafa shook her head again. Then, everything loose, hair, clothes, banners on the tower, billowed wildly as something huge began to set down right next to the three companions. It was a large balloon attached to a mechanical structure with people in it. Rafa could not make out the faces, so she and the two Oracles backed slowly away from the impending vehicle. When it landed, the stairs dropped out of the mechanical part, and Ramza descended from the steps. Rafa squealed with joy and ran up to him. She jumped on top of him, wrapping her around his neck.

"Ramza!" she yelled, and he choked. "Oh God, please let's get out of here."

"Rafa, we can't do that right now," Gene coached. "Remember that Malak and Masahiro are still in the tower."

"I know," Rafa sobbed, still latched onto Ramza. "But this place, it has a weird effect on you."

Just then, a darkened portal opened and from it emerged Kylie, Strawberry, and a dark-haired girl that Ramza didn't know. Directly afterwards, Masahiro and the others came running down the steps of the tower. Ramza looked incredibly confused.

"Okay," he said as Olan, Agrias, Balmafula, and Mustadio exited the airship after him. "Somebody's gonna have to debrief me."

A/N: Sorry to still leave that cliffhanger with Mel and Delita unresolved, but I'll take care of that next chapter. Just don't forget about them. And I don't know where Miranda got all those powers from, but I'll try to make this stuff make sense. Bare with me.

By the way, Jeriacor, Vysantha and all the other Acolytes are from an amazing computer game called Lords of Magic.


	24. Chapter 23: The Acolytes' Challenge

"Nice to see you again Miss Tingel," Delita remarked. He handed the staff to Ophelia and advanced on Meliadoul. She was unsure of what this reaction meant, so she backed up slowly. He flashed her a slightly sadistic smile, and Meliadoul felt a chill run down her back. "I won't hurt you. You are, after all, one of the Shrine Knights. Oh wait, I forgot, you threw that all away to join Ramza. He is such a naïve fool. Always thinking that everyone can be saved."

"Maybe not everyone," Meliadoul said cautiously, advancing a step on her adversary. "But some people can. He saved me from almost certain death at the hands of Zalera. And the Galthanas were assassins before they met him. And the Vance sisters, the feral women kidnapped as children by monsters. All these people have rallied to his cause because he believed in them. He has unwavering faith in himself, and although it may be a sin, I can respect that."

Delita paused. "Are you finished?" he asked. "That was a rousing speech. I almost shed a tear. The truth is, my dear lady, that no one is worth saving. If evil is one's inherent nature, then they will be evil for the rest of eternity. No one can ever change."

"Well," Ophelia cut in, seeing as how Meliadoul and Delita were now inches from each other's face and looked like they were going to explode into a fit of rage and kill each other. "Now that we have the staff, we should probably go back to Goug. We'll stay at an Inn and take off in the morning."

"Very well," Delita said. "Now give me the Staff."

"Um, Delita," Ophelia said cautiously, wanting the staff but unsure of how to proceed. "I think the Staff would be safer with us. And besides, we wouldn't want any more targets than are absolutely necessary. You'd be needlessly putting your own life at risk." Meliadoul really marveled at Ophelia. She knew where everyone's weak spot was, and she knew which buttons to push, and where, and exactly how hard. She knew enough about Delita to know that he was mainly concerned with his own well-being.

"Fine," Delita said begrudgingly. "We will team up until we prevent Ajora's re-resurrection."

"So let me get this straight," Ramza said, trying to make sense of all the information he was getting. "We now have two enemy forces to deal with: Valdorna and her Acolytes and now Tara Richardson. Miss Sandross and her sister know more of these artifacts than we do. Perhaps Orlandu and his team found something useful in Murond."

"And from what you described Reis," Luna said, holding up the large volume and scanning a couple dozen pages. "It seems as if that cave was formally inhabited by a variety of mushrooms, some of which were hallucinogens. Your fall to the floor must have released the spores inside it. It released what you feared most. Well, maybe not most, but pretty darn close."

"What can we possibly know about these artifacts?" Drusilla asked. "We are just as clueless as you about this. Yes, we know that the Ring I wear is somehow connected to Ajora's rising, but that's it."

"We know that this Necklace also has something to do with it," Rafa continued. "Although we don't yet know what."

"Here," Christine walked forward, holding a tattered book in her hands. She opened it up to about halfway through and began reading. "It says here that 'First one must unlock the door with the Ring. Then, one must place the Necklace where the light meets itself. Then when the Mirror reflects the Light of God onto the Staff, his servant Ajora shall rise to cleanse the earth again.' So each artifact is like a piece of the puzzle."

"But what does the phrase 'where the light meets itself' mean?" Olan thought out loud. "It must be some sort of riddle. What helps something meet itself?"

"A mirror," Miranda chimed in. "A mirror reflects an image. Perhaps that's what meets itself."

"Ajora's Mirror?" Strawberry suggested.

"No," Olan contradicted. "The Mirror is already mentioned by name. They wouldn't go through all that trouble to mention something twice."

"What about the lighthouse," Balmafula suggested. "You know, the one over the Deep Dungeon?"

"Yes," Agrias concluded. "That makes sense. I mean, it was abandoned for a reason. That reason was lost to history. Maybe it was abandoned because it was too dangerous to keep people in it. It was left on the outer rim of the continent. And it has a mirror in it to reflect the light from the lanterns into a beacon leading the ships to shore. Bal, you're a genius."

"I do my part," she replied cockily.

"Now," Ramza said, ever the leader. "Dru, Kylie, Worker 8, I want you to stay on the Hindenburg and guard it. Mustadio, get your father to prep it for take off as soon as possible. I'm going to go find Valdorna. Musty, Agrias, Olan, Reis, you're coming with me. She wants a war? We'll bring her a war. Everyone else, saddle up, we're boarding the Hindenburg."

"I'm not going on that contraption," Dru said haughtily. "I won't feel safe."

"Look princess," Gene said sarcastically. "Unless you can conjure a boat out of thin air, either you're coming with us or you're staying here. There's simply no two ways about it."

"Besides," Miranda coaxed. "They saved my life. Isn't that worth something?" Dru grumbled, but she got on the airship with everyone else. Ramza headed into the building with his team to find the madwoman who started it all. Christine snuck into the building to find Malak.

Masahiro led Malak down the winding staircases of Nelveska Temple after defeating the two lovers in a higher floor. Seeing as how they were alone, Masahiro decided to ask him something he had wondered for at least since he had taken his female pupil under his wing over three years ago.

"So what's the deal with you and Christine?" Masahiro asked suddenly. "Are you two just friends or what?"

"Of course," Malak said, not knowing Christine was standing below him at this very moment. "There were some close calls, but I think that we preserved the teacher/pupil relationship. And cultivated a new one of friendship."

"Malak, if you don't do something about this soon," Masahiro began, trying to warn his friend of his impending mistake. "You'll be looking at a world of lady friends and no one special to call your own. If you can't see that she likes you by now, you're a damn fool."

Christine had always admired Masahiro, but he did have that tendency to be a little too blunt. She had wanted Malak to figure out her feelings for himself, but she supposed beggars couldn't be choosers. Masahiro's advice was enough. Malak shook his head.

"No, you don't understand," he argued, hoping to find a shred of evidence to support his argument. Malak hated to be wrong. "If she did love me, she would have said something by now. We have that kind of friendship."

"This doesn't come from me Malak," Masahiro retorted. They continued to walk down the stairs and Christine followed just in front of them to hear their conversation. "This comes from the experts: this comes from the gals. Pam, Rafa, Luna, Kylie. They talk, and what they say points to Chris having feelings for you."

'Wow, am I really that transparent?' Chris asked herself. The fact that she might be discovered dawned on her, and she ran to the Hindenburg before she was discovered.

Christine and Malak sat waiting inside the Hindenburg. He looked at her, and realized just how close they had become in the past couple years. He had seen her at her worst, and at what so far he assumed to be her best, and their strange, fragile relationship had held through all the trials and tribulations they had endured in the past few months. She had waited for him on the docks of Warjilis, and even now she was looking out for him. When he pulled her out of that hole in Nelveska, he saw a look in her eyes that he had never seen before. Now he thought that he was becoming interested in being more than friends with Christine.

"Malak?" Christine's voice snapped him out of his trance. "Come here, I want to talk to you for a moment." He obeyed, and sauntered over to her. She led him outside the Hindenburg, and they snuck off to a secluded area surrounded on all sides by ruined buildings. There was moss growing all around them, and the place was as verdant as spring even though it was closer to fall. Christine sat down, cross-legged, in the grass, and Malak sat down facing her.

"What did you want?" he asked, although he figured he already knew the answer.

"There's been something I've been meaning to tell you for some time now," she said, her blue eyes locking perfectly with his brown. "Ajora knows why I've been putting it off, but I decided when I got stuck down in that hole that if I ever got out I was going to tell you. Malak, we've been friends for a long time now and-"

Christine was interrupted when Malak grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he traced her slim, muscular form down to her waist. He pulled her closer to him, and leaned back slowly in the moss. She broke the kiss for a moment.

"We should get back," she said, removing her legs from either side of Malak. She stood, and offered him a hand. He took it.

"You're right Chrissie," Malak replied, standing up. "They're probably wondering where we are."

"Oh, about my name," Christine replied, slipping her hand into his. "Just call me Chris. The femininity thing is getting old. And besides, it's so much easier to say."

"Okay Chris," Malak said, entwining his fingers into hers. "It is an odd request, seeing as how not twenty-four hours ago you asked me to call you Chrissie."

"You'll adjust," Christine said smiling. He placed a tiny kiss on her lips as they walked back towards the Hindenburg. "Besides, I only did that because I thought you thought I was a guy."

"So how long has it been Beow?" Tara asked, circling around to his other side, and Beowulf followed her in her circle of death. "Five years? Ten? And not so much as letter? Come on honey, I thought we were closer than that."

"We've never been close _honey_," Beowulf spat, because his hatred of this gorgeous creature knew no bounds. She had always fostered the hatred between Buremonda and himself, and though they didn't know it at the time, her love of Buremonda was what drove the two friends apart. "I never liked you. And neither did Buremonda."

"You shut your filthy mouth!" She screamed, and launched herself at him. She pulled both swords out of her back sheathes and slashed at Beowulf. He pulled out the Hrunting with equally quick speed and parried her blow. As she flew past him, he kicked her in the back and she fell down into the dirt.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Beowulf taunted, sticking the sword in the ground and leaning his arms on the hilt. He looked at her with taunting eyes unusual for Beowulf. "You never did learn to control that temper."

She got up and spun around with murder in her eyes. She launched herself at Beowulf. Beowulf, who found that fighting enraged opponents was much easier than clear-minded ones, sliced her swords to the ground and hit her in the face with his elbow. She stood up, holding her bloodied nose.

"I've had enough of this," she said, angrily. "If you truly want to know what we're up to, come up to the top of the Lighthouse." She sprinted up to the lighthouse and ascended the stairs just as quickly. Beowulf sat down on the ground, a little out of breath. Granted, it wasn't exactly a difficult battle, but he was getting older. He couldn't hunt dragons all day like he did in his youth, or pretend to hunt them like he did in a much more distant youth. He was sometimes alienated from the group because of his age difference from them. Even Reis was about the same age as some of them, but he and Orlandu surpassed everyone else by at least five years, Orlandu by about thirty more. And besides, Reis had made friends with the mage Rafa, which was amusing because Beowulf suspected the young woman, and she was a woman as Beowulf had noticed, had a schoolgirl crush on him. It was harmless of course, but that made her association with Reis that much more unusual.

Beowulf felt something move underneath him. He immediately jumped to his feet with reflexes refined since he was a teenager. Suddenly, out of the earth, human-like creatures made of clay rose up and began to take a swing at him. He jumped out of the way, and the clay monster split the ground where Beowulf had just stood into pieces that flew into the air and then back into the hole created by the creature's great fist.

"What are these things?" he cried as the continued to come after him. There were about four or five. One launched itself at him, quite literally, and tried to encompass him in his clay body. Beowulf dodged to the left, and brought back his sword. He screamed out one of his Temple spells, and the creature slowly froze and turned to stone. Satisfied it was down for the count, he moved to the other four mud creatures. But it wasn't done. The stone monster slowly broke it's position and grabbed Beowulf by the cape. It pulled him back away from the others as Beowulf tried desperately to cast another Temple spell to incapacitate it, but it used it's other arm to bind his behind his back. He was being advanced on by the mud monsters and he figured he was done for. Then he remembered his brief training as a Black Mage, and he muttered an incantation for the most basic Black Magic spell: Fire. It worked almost instantly. Beowulf was surprised. Usually magic took time to charge, and by then, most mages were dead. Summons were even worse. But this spell worked with almost no time delay. One of the monsters caught fire and began to scream in an unearthly tone that almost made Beowulf's ears bleed. Two of the others went to beat it out.

'Good,' Beowulf thought. 'One I can handle. Four is a different story.' He pushed back on the creature ahead of him with his feet and toppled the rock monster behind him. Sure, it was almost invincible, Beowulf had a more refined type of Break spell that was harder than others, but that power came with the off-set of a very top-heavy being. It went down, and it let go of Beowulf. He used this opportunity to cast Sleep on the one charging at him, and it dropped back into the ground, harmless mud again. Beowulf smirked, and the other two that were beating out the fire on their companion got up and looked intent of beating on him instead. He cast Sleep on one of them, and it turned back into mud. Confident he had enough magical energy, he decided to try a different spell. He swung his sword, and the mud monster turned into a small yellow chicken and ran in the other direction. The flaming mud monster got up and slowly swung a flaming fist at him and he sliced it's arm off. Then he cut off the head and the other arm, and the legs. It fell to the ground, useless and dried and cracked. It broke apart. The rock monster charged at him and he jumped out of the way, and used up the last of his magical energy to cast a final Sleep spell on it. It turned into a harmless rock statue. He slumped down next to the defeated rock creatures and sighed.

"Come on Reis," he thought aloud, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Where are you baby? I need your strength."

Ramza and his troupe went back into the Nelveska Temple to find any traces of the Acolytes they might have left. Any clues to what their next move might be. Either fortunately or unfortunately for them, they got something even better. Or worse.

"Aye me pretty gal," a gruff voice came from the entrance. "Ah see ya escaped me pit."

"Nice to see you again, Gamling was it?" Reis said sarcastically. Apparently the dragon had taken over again. "I will be so glad to be rid of you." All of a sudden she spit a fireball from her mouth into her hand and threw it at Gamling. It bounced harmlessly off of his armor.

"Magic powers I have not," Gamling replied. "I'm not a fighter or a strategist. But my armor is impenetrable. Nothing can get through-"

An arrow suddenly whizzed through the air and planted itself into the tiny gap in Gamling's helmet. He dropped instantly dead to the floor, his armor clattering loudly, and Ramza looked back to see where the arrow came from. Ophelia looked up at them, her blue eyes glittering in the midday sun streaming through the tiny windows. She wore an expression of boredom, as if she could do this in her sleep, which was probably true. She still wore the outfit of a Mediator, but held a bow in her hands.

"What?" she asked flippantly.

In Murond, Meliadoul grabbed Ophelia by the arm and dragged her into an adjacent room with a powerful tug that only Agrias could have matched.

"Alright Kaishou," Meliadoul said gruffly but softly once they were alone. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"Do what?" Ophelia asked innocently. She did not like Meliadoul, and she did not like Malak. She didn't like Christine, or Pamela, or Strawberry. She didn't like anyone who she had to fight in battle. Like Delita, she did not put much in the fact that a person could change.

"You brought Delita here, didn't you?" Meliadoul yelled quietly. "I was getting some information out of Kletian and you ruined it all for your own petty rivalry with me."

"And what exactly were you getting out of Kletian besides a rise?" Ophelia asked cruelly. "Face it, you want him and you were trying to get him to want you too."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Meliadoul retorted. "I found out that Ajora has four artifacts: a Ring, a Staff, a Mirror, and a Necklace. Now, Rush has the Mirror and we have the Staff. If we can find the Necklace and the Ring-"

"You're just angry that Ramza likes me and not you," Ophelia barked at Meliadoul, and that was when Meliadoul snapped. She slapped Ophelia across the face, and her hood fell off her head and exposed her dark brown hair. There was an evil look in her eyes, and her top lip was twisted up in a scowl. Ophelia looked a little afraid and backed away a step or two.

"Don't ever do that again, Opie," she spat out Ophelia's name. "Or I will snap you like a twig." She put up her hood again and suddenly her demeanor changed back. "Sorry about that. Just, don't ever make a female knight mad, Agrias included."

As she walked away, Ophelia stood there rubbing her stinging cheek. Okay, so it didn't hurt, but she was still surprised Meliadoul had done that. Except in battle, she was usually a pretty docile person. Ophelia never knew she had such a dark side to her. Well, sure, she had the whole almost a Zodiac Brave thing going for her but Ophelia didn't think that was enough to make her evil. This was the first time that Ophelia began to worry about the state of Meliadoul's conscience.

"Ophelia," Orlandu called to her in his quiet way. She snapped out of her trance and ran over to her mentor. Well, he was her mentor and not her teacher. Orlandu was the oldest and wisest person on the team which meant that, unfortunately for him, most of the team came to him with their problems. It could not bode well with the Holy Swordsman's conscience.

"Sorry Orlandu," she apologized, and followed him to Delita's private boat. It was much faster than Jack's boat. Orlandu walked up to it and it took his breath away. It was gorgeous. The carving on the front was of a gorgeous mermaid that, now that Orlandu thought about it, looked a little like Queen Ovelia. His eyes continued down the ship. It was made of mahogany, a rare and beautiful but expensive wood at the time. Orlandu guessed that it was fairly new, considering Delita had only been king for a few months and he already saw his symbol, a white lion and a black lion back-to-back with a wolf's head above them both, uniting them, was already engraved into the right side of the boat. He was known throughout the Kingdom as the White Wolf because of his ferocity and his being the last surviving member of the Black Sheep Knights after the death of Barin Grims. The name "Alexa" was painted on the side.

Ophelia noticed the name too, but not quite in the same detail that Orlandu's excellent eyes did. The name Alexa did ring a faint bell to her, but she couldn't remember what it was.

"That's a pretty name," Ophelia heard Meliadoul remark. It snapped her out of her trance and she listened to Delita. "Where did you get the idea to call her Alexa?"

"It was my mother's name," Delita remembered darkly. Alexa Hyral. He didn't know her very well but from what Dycedarg had told her when he and Teta were young, before the Lion War, he was actually a rather decent human being, she was a beautiful woman. She had dark brown hair the color of stained wood, and deep brown eyes that one could drown in. Delita and his father never really got along, but his beautiful mother stuck out in his mind. No one else knew, but he had overheard Dycedarg and Balbanes talking about his mother. The last thing she did before his father contracted the Plague was put Delita and Teta in the care of Balbanes, who was still healthy at this time. She never really got the Plague at first, but she decided she wouldn't leave her husband. Ramza and Delita were seven, Ophelia was eight, and Teta was six.

At the tender age of six, Teta still didn't know much about her parents. Delita remembered Ophelia asking Teta about her mother once, and all she got was a vague "she was nice" whenever she asked about her. Ophelia did not learn tact until she was in her early teens. She realized then that pressing the question about one's dead mother is not a good idea. Better late than never, Delita always said. Anyway, Delita had overheard Dycedarg and Balbanes talking about what his mother was doing right before she gave her children up. She used the last of what little money they had to buy her daughter a little silver pendant. Delita could imagine the scene playing out in his mind.

His mother stooped down and kissed her young daughter on the forehead. She pushed a few locks of the child's chestnut hair behind her ear, telling Teta to be a good girl. She pulled the locket out of her pocket and slipped it over Teta's head. She patted her on the head and sent her off with her husband's Lord. Alexa Hyral was beaten as a child, and she promised herself long ago that she would not let anything happen to her children. She would never have told her children, but Alexa Hyral had to cut off much of her hair (given that he was only seven years old when he last saw her, Delita wouldn't have noticed the change) to pay for the locket she gave her daughter. She kept one of the locks, and placed it inside the locket and closed it tight so that Teta would not be able to open it until she was older and knew better than to open and close it constantly.

A few other people knew about the locket: Ramza heard about it from Alma, who asked Teta about it, and Ophelia and Dorothy, who were also friends with Teta, and obviously Delita, but that was it. Only a few people knew it even existed. Delita could feel it's cold silver against his skin, and he sighed at the memory of his dead mother.

'No time for nostalgia,' Delita thought to himself. 'I've got to get to the Deep Dungeon lighthouse.'

"All aboard for Deep Dungeon," he said, boarding his boat. "Who's coming?"

"I believe that Cloud and I will make use of this excellent training facility and spar a bit," Orlandu said softly, rising from his seat in one of the chairs. "I would like him to perfect and center his Icewolf Bite."

Meliadoul was slightly taken aback, although her years of Shrine Knight training allowed her to show no emotion. It had taken her many long and difficult battles to learn Icewolf Bite, and this, _child_, had already almost mastered it. Soon, he would have all of Meliadoul's skills, as well as Gafgarion's and his own, and she would become obsolete. This scared her more that just about anything. Most of all, she did not want to be useless.

Even Agrias was learning skills faster than she. Not at the same rate as Cloud, but still better than Meliadoul. She had already learned Dark Sword and was just about to learn Night Sword, arguably the most useful sword ability. Orlandu wanted to pass his skills on so that they would not be forgotten. Dark Knight is a dying job class: Gafgarion was one of their last, and no new ones were being trained by law of King Omdolia years before. She always wondered why he didn't just move away and start a school for people who wanted to learn his skills instead of encroaching on her territory.

Of course, she would never share these thoughts with anyone, but the jealousy was still there, rearing it's ugly head in the back of her mind. She guessed that most of the fear of being obsolete stemmed from her jealousy that Cloud had learned something in a few days that had taken her a good couple months to learn. She should be happy for Cloud, and she knew it, but still…

"I'll go with you," Kletian shrugged nonchalantly. "Got nothing better to do, besides sit around here and read, and I do enough of that at home."

"Ramza would want me there too," Meliadoul chimed in, deciding to follow Kletian and see if she could get anymore out of him. "What about you Ophelia?"

"Well, I can Teleport, if I concentrate hard enough," she thought out loud. She stretched her hands out to their full extent, then pulled them back together with a clapping sound, dusting off her hands. "I think I'll go check on Ramza on Nelveska. Wish me luck."

She concentrated hard, and suddenly her whole body disappeared. Ophelia was quite a good teleporter in Meliadoul's opinion. She had come a long way in her magical skills since Meliadoul had first met her in Bervenia. Meliadoul had sure felt the sting then. Ophelia hit her full in the chest with a Flare spell, damn near killing her. That was what caused her to retreat. What was worse, their Archer Masahiro had snuck in and stolen her Defender right before she was hit. This angered Meliadoul at the time. Now she couldn't for the life of her remember why.

Delita, Meliadoul, and Kletian boarded the "Alexa" and waved goodbye to Orlandu, Cloud, and the Byblos as they sailed off for the Deep Dungeon Lighthouse. Meliadoul had already noticed that the "Alexa" was exponentially faster than Jack's ship, so they would probably get there in less than a day. She was feeling a little seasick.

Ophelia popped into view right in front of Malak and Christine as they walked back towards the Hindenburg. They jumped back in surprise, and Christine put her hand on her heart and began to pant heavily.

"My God Ophelia," Christine yelled. "Don't ever do that again."

"Sorry," Ophelia said, checking around to make sure she was all there. She had heard horrific stories of people who tried to Teleport before they were ready. Their limbs or organs were left back where they started and not carried with them to their new destination. Dismembered from their bodies. Once, Ophelia had experienced an embarrassing occurrence: she had teleported into her room from Ramza's, but left her clothes behind. She came out wrapped in a blanket when he knocked on her door with her clothes in his hands. She will always remember what Strawberry said when she turned up naked in front of her.

"Nice shade of red Ophelia," Strawberry had said, referring to the color of her face.

"Where is Ramza?" she asked. "I have a few things to report to him. We found one of the Weapons of Ajora. The Staff. I guess the Mirror is one of the Weapons too."

"We have in our possession right here the Ring and the Necklace," Malak said to himself. "And if Rush has the Mirror and the others on Murond have the Staff-"

"Rush no longer has the Mirror," the traitorous voice of Melissa O'Bannon permeated across the mostly barren and deserted plain. Christine, Malak, and Ophelia turned towards the source of the voice, and it was indeed Melissa. She was accompanied by who Ophelia assumed to be Beowulf's archrival Buremonda. "It is in our possession now. Should you wish to reclaim it, you will come to the lighthouse in the Deep Dungeon. Your friends will be waiting there."

Both villains disappeared with a puff of smoke. Ophelia turned to Malak and Christine and barked at them to get the vessel ready while she went in and got Ramza. As she ascended the stairs, she saw Ramza and some other standing in front of a stout man in forest green armor bragging about being "invincible".

'Let's find out how invincible you really are,' Ophelia thought, knocking an arrow in her Yoichi Bow. She let it fly, and it hit true to it's mark right between the man's eyes. Ramza and the others turned around and Ophelia looked bored, mostly for show.

"What?" she asked flippantly.

A/N: That's the last you'll see of Gamling, finally, but not the last of Melissa. She'll be back, as will Valdorna. Just be patient. Kletian and Delita will have more chapters from their point of view (hopefully) later on, and maybe a little will be made up, I mean revealed, about Delita's father. Let me know if you liked what I did with Alexa Hyral. Yeah, that pit thing still doesn't make sense but it won't matter much longer.

Anyway, Malak and Christine are finally together. Yay. But that means one less storyline to play off of. Damn. The whole rock monster thing just came out of nowhere. Random battle maybe. Oh well. Pretty soon everyone will be together again, and maybe I'll bring back all the people that are in Warjilis right now, even Alma. And more on Mustadio, because he hasn't done anything yet and I like him.


	25. Chapter 24: Power of Nelveska

Pamela Vance sat in the O'Bannon mansion near the harbor incredibly bored. For the past twenty-four hours she had sat and done absolutely nothing. She never really was the homemaker type. She didn't like staying home and keeping house, but she supposed that now that she and Masahiro were getting rather serious, he would be at work, whatever he chose to do, and she would stay home with the children. That was the way it had always been, and although she disagreed with it, Pamela knew that this hard truth was going nowhere. But this she could do something about.

But she was getting worried. Masahiro had stayed to protect the Mirror and he hadn't been back all day. She had gone looking for him earlier, but found only people gathering around the spot where Melissa attacked. No Masahiro. She was really worried about him. Rush had consoled her earlier when neither Masahiro or Strawberry had come back for a long time. He was good at knowing what to say, being the eloquent person he was. He always had the right words. Strawberry was a lucky woman.

She pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and her thoughts turned back to Masahiro. She had no idea where he was. Well, she did have some idea. That Mirror Rush found in the Deep Dungeon must have something to do with all this. Maybe…

She began to pack supplies for a few days for a trip to the Deep Dungeon. As she walked out the door, she passed Rush on her way out. He walked after her, and she sensed his presence.

"I'm going Rush," Pamela replied to his unspoken opposition to her leaving. "I'm going, and if you try to stop me, I'll hit you."

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," Rush replied. He had been on the end of a few of Pamela's slaps and it never ended well. "I figured you'd say that, so I'm offering to come with you. To help. I want to see Strawberry just as much as you want to see Masahiro."

"Well, you might need a cleric on the way," Alma said, appearing out of nowhere, and Pamela's heart sunk. Deep down, she didn't really like Alma, and she knew Alma would just be a liability just like always. But, Alma was a whiner and a brat, and she wouldn't stop complaining until she got what she wanted. Ramza, blinded to this by the fact that he's her sister, describes this quality as "perseverance". Pamela just called it "annoying".

"Well, fine," she said, opening the door to the mansion and beginning to leave. "Just don't get in my way. I want to find Masahiro. I want to be useful."

So Pamela, Rush, and Alma set off in another of Jack's boats, smaller than the other one but big enough to make it across the Gulf of Warjilis. Pamela hoped that her Masahiro would be okay when she found him. If she found him.

Cloud gripped the edge of his fake sword tightly as he went for another strike against Orlandu. The old warrior dodged out of the way and brought his own wooden sword down on Cloud's back. Cloud fell onto his stomach, moaned and turned over so he and Orlandu were face to face. Orlandu put his sword to Cloud's neck, signifying his victory. He offered his hand to the young Soldier, and he took it.

"You seem distracted today Cloud," Orlandu said, pulling Cloud up off of the ground. "What is it? No, wait, let me guess. It has something to do with that rather attractive flower girl from Zarghidas, am I right?"

"No, Teacher" Cloud said non-convincingly. He had gotten into the habit of calling Orlandu 'Teacher' ever since he started teaching the young man. "I'm just spacing a little that time. Come on, let's go again and I'll prove it to you."

Orlandu nodded, sensing the lie immediately but not saying anymore of it, and stepped seven paces ahead of Cloud, one for each of the Seven Deadly Sins that led man to go against the will of God. It was an ancient Ivalician tradition. He and his sparring partner bowed to each other, and then Cloud charged up to Orlandu. Orlandu saw his plans before they were executed, before he even moved: he would slash across him at about neck level, then try a stabbing motion. It was always his opening move. Orlandu didn't know his strategy past that point, however, because Cloud never got that far. He was always out after that attempted stab.

Orlandu noticed Cloud charging at him, training sword ready to strike at his neck. The aging Swordsman could sense it. He caught Cloud's blade with his own, pushed it to the left, and kicked him in the hip. Cloud cried in pain and went down. Orlandu put his sword to Cloud's throat.

"I win again Cloud Strife," Orlandu said simply. "And now please tell me what is distracting you, for if we do not know what it is, we cannot move on with our training. Please begin." Orlandu sat down on a bench lying in the courtyard of the Murond Holy Place and waited for Cloud to speak. He was silent for a time, but finally he conceded and spoke.

"You were right Teacher, as usual," Cloud began. "It is about the flower girl from Zarghidas. She's just so… alluring, I guess would be the word. I don't know what it is about her, but she's just so beautiful. I can't get her off my mind. I want to see her again. That's why I'm training: so I can go to Zarghidas on my own, without troubling Ramza, whose already been too good to me."

Cloud felt really bad about lying to the man he most respected, and he sensed Orlandu had already realized he lied. It wasn't a complete lie: he was thinking about her, but not in the way that Orlandu suspected. He did think she was beautiful, but she bore too striking a resemblance to a woman he knew in his old life, the one he had before Mustadio pulled him from the deck of the Highwind.

He remembered it vividly. He and his other friends, Cid, Barret, Tifa, Cait Sith, Nanaki, Vincent, and Yuffie, sat watching for the spell summoned by the girl in his thoughts to save them from the giant Meteor that was at that very moment rocketing towards them. Suddenly, the two magics collided, and there was a brief but violent flash of light, and Cloud found himself in Ivalice. That was the last thing he remembered, but there were painful memories of this girl before he was on the deck of the Highwind waiting for the world to end.

In an ancient city, the girl Cloud fell in love with knelt in front of an alter, praying. Her deep green eyes were closed in reverence, and her bangs fell in front of her muttering mouth. Her hands were folded a la prayer style, and she wore a pink button-up dress with a light burgundy jacket. From the bright pink bow in her hair to her leather work boots, this girl was pure goodness. She would never hurt anybody unless she had to, and her healing spells couldn't be beat. Cloud didn't realized how much he really loved her until she was gone.

That was the reason he thought so much of that flower girl from Zarghidas: she reminded him of that girl he loved in another life. The one with the pink bow and the Mako green eyes. The one he called Aeris, the one with the same name as the flower girl from Zarghidas. He witnessed her death: a sword pierced through her heart in that ancient city where she prayed to save the world. She died, and the bow in her hair fell out and lost her mother's bauble she kept tied inside it. The small gem fell into the pool of water, but Cloud saved the ribbon from her hair, and now kept it as a memento.

He knew the reason he could never show his affection for the nice flower girl from Zarghidas was she reminded him too much of his Aeris. He would never tell her that.

"Cloud?" Orlandu's words snapped Cloud from his thoughts. He turned his attention once more to his Teacher. "A penny for your thoughts."

"Nothing important Teacher," Cloud replied. "Now, one more round?"

Onboard the Alexa, Kletian Drowa mulled over the thoughts that were swimming in his head. First of all, there was the re-resurrection of Ajora hanging over their heads. Granted, he had aided in her second coming, but that was when Vormav's control had taken over his mind. He wasn't sure how he did it, but somehow being around Vormav had changed him. Perhaps it was the presence of Hashmalum, the Lion Brave. He was a powerful force, the likes of which have never truly been defeated. After all, Hashmalum did kill himself. Powerful as the arrogant noble was, Ramza barely scratched him.

Which brought him to his other point: Why does Meliadoul hang out with a heretic like him? What did she see in that skinny kid? Was it the boldness? The determination? That little strand of hair that stuck straight out of his head? What was it that Meliadoul, no, all the girls in his group, saw in him? Kletian had met some charismatic heroes in his time, but this child of Balbanes' was the first he knew of to carry such a large female following. Agrias, Meliadoul, Rafa, Kylie, Ophelia, Strawberry, Dorothy: all of them had had a crush on him. It's not like he was jealous or anything, he just was confused. Like a scholar, he wanted simply to gain information.

This brought him to another train of thought: Meliadoul. Why was she so nice to him while all her friends were so cruel? He suspected it was just to get him to help identify the weapons of Ajora, but it could be something else… Something a little more like- Nah.

"Kletian Drowa?" Delita's voice snapped Kletian out of his thoughts, much to Kletian's dismay. He did not show this however, but instead bowed for the King of Ivalice. Delita waved him up and he stood again. "You are the great Shrine Knight Wizard Kletian Drowa, are you not?"

"I am glad to see my talents have earned me some acclaim," he thought out loud without turning his head from the quickly moving sea. Vormav had never told him he was any good at magic, and Rofel's praises were few and far between. Not that he needed it, but still.

"I just wanted to know," Delita said, then paused. "Who are the other Zodiac Brave hosts? I knew you were involved and just  
assumed-"

"That Vormav actually told me something?" Kletian asked. "Sorry, I wasn't in on most of his plans. Yes, I was ranked higher than most other people in the Shrine Knights, but the info was kept for number one and number two."

"Vormav and Rofel," Delita stated.

"Exactly my Liege," Kletian replied. He was the third highest ranked person in the Shrine Knights. This was fine with him: he hated most of the people underneath him anyway. He was the only mage out of the seven Shrine Knights, and this tended to alienate him. Meliadoul was always nice to him.

"I do know a few my King," Kletian continued. "Izlude was supposed to be Pisces. I know that because I gave him the Stone. There was a hidden Zodiac Stone in the Deep Dungeon called Serpentarius, and it was put there by Rofel years ago to be found by the great hero Elibidis. Somehow though, I think Ramza may be in possession of both Stones now. Maybe even all fourteen."

"Thirteen," Delita corrected. "Thirteen Zodiac Stones."

"Of course your Majesty," Kletian apologized. "I must have misspoke. I am sorry. Anyway, that is all I know of the Zodiac Braves that you do not."

"It's just that they did not seem like the immortal demons of legend," Delita said, and Kletian gave him a confused look. "I had kept a constant but silent watch on Ramza and his mercenaries. I know all about Ajora and the Zodiac demons."

"Thank you your Majesty," Kletian said, and bowed slightly. "I was a bit confused as to how you knew about all of this Zodiac demon nonsense."

"It is not nonsense," Delita snapped. "Of all people Kletian, I would have thought you should know that."

"With all due respect your Highness," Kletian justified, lowering his head. "I call it nonsense because even Ramza doesn't know the true nature of the Zodiac Braves. They are Ajora's twelve disciples. They are not demons, but the reflections of people's souls. The Archangel Ajora used her Mirror to create them. She used the evil in their souls to create the perversions Ramza fought. Hashmalum, Adramelk, Velius, Queklain, Elibidis, Zalera, Portia, Malris, Count Lorne, Kraken, Chiron, Minotaurus: all of them were once human. But Ajora used her Mirror to reflect the evil in their hearts and turned them into the Zodiac Braves."

"Those last few you mentioned," Delita said. "I am not familiar with them. I assume they are the Braves not let out by Vormav and Hashmalum. Am I correct?"

"I believe you are my Lord, although there is no evidence to support of deny this theory," Kletian said, crossing his arms. "There may be texts in Orbonne Monastery saying something about this. I don't know though, because I was not allowed time to study them while I was raising Ajora only a few days ago. Perhaps I will travel back there if we survive this."

"I hope we do," Delita mused, staring out at the waters. "I hope we do."

"Well, Ophelia, it's nice to see you," Ramza commented, although everyone else looked angry. This was a covert operation after all. They were trying not to be detected, and more people would just add to the danger. "We're trying to find Valdorna, the leader of the Acolytes. She's in here somewhere."

"Well, okay," Ophelia replied, very confused. "I'll just play it by ear then." She continued up the stairs with Ramza, and Mustadio looked at her. She had become friends with him right from the moment they met in Zaland. She was such a nice young woman, and she was a sort of counselor for everyone on the group because all this death and killing took its toll on one's emotions.

'Add on the added drama of having a group of young adults and all their emotional baggage and you've got one hell of a problem,' Mustadio thought with a slight chuckle. But he knew it was true. Tentative cliques had been formed within their little group, and Mustadio was a little worried about what might happen to those cliques if their ideas clashed.

Poor Mustadio had always been downplayed as kind of the fool of the group. He had never really liked that. Especially when the woman of his dreams saw him as a bumbling idiot. Agrias Oaks. True, they were the best of friends, but Mustadio had heard the way she talked about him behind his back to Ramza and Malak. And he knew she was in love with Ramza, but he didn't care: he could compete with that stuck up noble. Sure, he and Ramza were best friends, but that didn't necessarily mean they got along. As he had learned all too well, there are some friends you just have to be careful around.

"Mustadio?" Agrias asked, and he snapped out of his thoughts. She raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Anyone home?"

"Sorry," Mustadio smiled. "Must have zoned out there for a while." The group continued climbing the stairs until they got to the room where Reis, Miranda, and Christine were kept. This time however, Reis noticed a staircase on the far side of the room. She ran up it, and the others followed her into the tallest turret in the Temple.

The room was huge. It was lavishly decorated with foreign rugs like the Roan Silk. This especially caught Ophelia's eye and she draped it over her shoulders. Inside the room, just as they expected, was the Golden Key Valdorna. But this time she wasn't alone.

"Hello Ramza," she said from on top of what looked like Worker 8. It's eyes glowed red with energy, a sign that it was turned on at full power. "I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine: Worker 7-new. I rebuilt him. I made him better, faster, stronger. Plus I upgraded his weapon systems. I think you'll have a harder time defeating him now than you did back then."

Agrias swore under her breath and then spat on the floor. She was present at the battle where they first fought Worker 7-new. She remembered that they barely got out of there alive. She didn't even remember how Rafa was able to grab the Golden Escutcheon and the Ultimate Javelin. She blacked out about halfway through the battle. She was revived later by Ophelia. She never really knew what happened in the time she was out, but when she woke up, Reis was a human.

"Have at 'me my pretty," Valdorna said, and slipped off of her robot into the shadows. The mechanical behemoth flickered to life and swung one giant fist in the direction of Olan and Ophelia. Both dodged out of the way as Ramza and Agrias drew their swords. Reis took a big breath and shot a stream of fire from her mouth at the robot. It's chest opened up and it shot multiple streams of lavender energy her way. It met her pathetic flames and slammed her into the wall. Reis looked barely alive as her body slumped to the floor. Worker 7-new now turned it's attention to Mustadio. The brave Mechanic began to fire his Blast Gun at the humongous machine, but to no avail. Worker 7-new sideswiped its left hand under Mustadio's feet and he fell to the ground. As his fists descended from the air onto Mustadio, he fired his gun once more and this time, not only did he get a high level spell out of the gun, he hit it right between the eyes. Its central processor was fried, hopefully for good this time. Worker 7-new staggered back and swung its hands wildly around the room. As the robot swung its fist towards Agrias, but she blocked it with her huge Defender. As she fended its attack off, Ramza came on and drove his sword deep into its wiring. Worker 7- new sparked and grabbed Ramza around the waist with its other arm. It started to squeeze the life out of him. Ramza could feel his life slipping away, and he saw Agrias bring her sword back from its defensive position.

"Split Punch!" The ghostly periwinkle sword embedded itself in the robot's chest and then disappeared. The damage to Worker 7-new was extensive now, and it was on its last legs. Agrias swung her Defender to summon another one of her powers.

"Holy Explosion!" The ground cracked open and Worker 7-new and Ramza dropped down a floor. Ramza grabbed onto the edge of the floor as the ground collapsed all around him. He felt it fall off after Worker 7-new, and he fell back into the hole. Olan grabbed him by the wrist and held onto him so he wouldn't follow the robot into the darkness. Olan pulled Ramza up and followed Agrias, Ophelia, and Mustadio, carrying Reis, out the window onto the room as the tower itself was collapsing around them. As they got on the roof, they watched the tower fall onto the body of Worker 7-new. They assumed he had fallen down to floor one before the falling started, which put him under at least five stories of rubble. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Olan spoke up.

"Uh guys," he said. "We're up on the room. Any idea how we're getting down?" They all looked at each other and yelled for Besrodio in the Hindenburg.

Pamela, Rush, and Alma quickly docked at the Deep Dungeon lighthouse after about an hour sail and got off the boat where they saw a figure sleeping in the grass. It was Beowulf. Pamela pushed that lock of hair out of her eyes and walked up slowly to him and gently shook him awake. He jumped up, Hrunting in his hands, ready to fight. But he saw who it was and realized they were friendly and not a threat. He sighed deeply and snapped at Pamela.

"Don't ever do that again," he panted. He stood up and looked around. "Hey, have you guys seen Strawberry or Kylie anywhere? They were just here a few minutes ago but they jumped in some sort of portal and I wondered if they were back yet."

"Some how I don't think it was a return portal Beowulf," Alma said. "Portals don't really work like that. When you go in, you usually have to find your own way back."

"Well, I don't know much about this or what's going on at all as a matter of fact," Rush commented. "But Melissa has the Mirror and we've heard that she hangs out here so we came to take it back."

"With a Monk, a Cleric, and an Archer?" Beowulf asked, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, but even with my power I couldn't defeat her. Or so I hear."

"She is strong yes," Pamela said, reaching into her pocket. "But this time we have help." She pulled the Zodiac Stone Virgo into the light. It shimmered to life in the presence of the Acolytes on the tiny island.

"Are you crazy?" Beowulf yelled, grabbing the Stone away from Pamela and pocketing it himself. "Do you have any idea what they could do with this?"

"Well, no," Pamela replied, her eyes shifting around nervously. "I don't think anyone does."

"Neither do I," Beowulf said, his voice softer and less commanding this time. "And I don't intend to find out anytime soon." He turned towards the lighthouse and thought about Reis again. He hadn't seen her since she was taken by Buremonda, and that was a few hours ago. He knew that Buremonda wouldn't kill her, at least his crazy obsession with Reis proved useful for something, but he had no idea what he was doing to her at this very moment. He really missed her. He supposed that he and Buremonda did have something in common: they were both obsessed with Reis. The difference was that he was crazy and Beowulf wasn't. Both men loved her. What a strange yet familiar situation.

"Well," Alma said cheerily. "We might as well go into the lighthouse. What could possibly happen?"

"Um, Alma?" Rush asked, but she already began trouncing up the stairs at the foot of the lighthouse. Rush rolled his eyes. "Wait here guys. I'll be right back." He followed the youngest Beoulve into the interior of the lighthouse. As he sprinted after her, he found himself wondering where Strawberry was. Not that he was obsessive or anything, he was just very worried about his wife. He loved her very much. She was a rather shy person before she met him. He remembered hearing stories from Ophelia, who was on friendly terms with pretty much everyone, about her being very alienated in the group. They would go to a party, most likely prompted by Kylie and/or David, and Strawberry would stay home or stand in the corner.

Rush changed all that. He came into the party during the battle with Zalmo at Lesalia. Rush's life was regimented with training and the like until he was stationed with the Holy Priest to attack the heretic in Lesalia. Then, he met Ophelia and he joined Ramza's cause. That was when he met Strawberry and they hit it off right away. He broke her slightly out of her shell. They were married the next summer.

When he finally did find Alma, she was stopped in her tracks staring in fear ahead of her. Rush tried to get her attention, but she just pointed ahead wordlessly. He looked and saw a giant, three-headed Tiamat rearing it's three white heads in Alma's direction. He grabbed her around the waist and pushed her to the ground as the monster's lightning sizzled just above their heads.

"Beowulf!" Rush yelled for help because, strong as he was, he knew that no one in Ramza's party was a match for a Tiamat alone. Except maybe for Sir Orlandu. But Beowulf didn't come, so Rush grabbed Alma by the hand and pulled her down the steps of the lighthouse.

Beowulf and Pamela waited outside for Rush and Alma to come back because it was not a place one wanted to be alone in. As they stood waiting, they saw a boat pull into the harbor next to theirs. The name "Alexa" was painted on the side. Out of it came Meliadoul, Kletian and…

"Delita?" Pamela said questioningly. "What is he doing here? Doesn't he have to be, like, running the country or something?"

"I have an interim King in my place who is ghost ruling for me," he replied, and everybody else gave him a confused look. "You know, ghost ruling. Like ghostwriting." Everybody nodded in comprehension and Beowulf heard his name being called from inside the lighthouse.

"That sounded like Rush," Beowulf said, drawing Hrunting and began to run for the steps at the bottom of the lighthouse when someone grabbed his hand. It was Delita. He shook his head, and Beowulf gave him a disgusted look.

"It would be easier for him to draw it out here so we can fight it in an open space," Delita explained.

"And give it a chance to grab Alma and fly away," Pamela continued. "No, I think we should go in there and help him."

"We don't even know what that thing is that's in there," Kletian argued. "How could you even think of putting all our lives in danger like that?"

"No one asked your opinion, Shrine Knight," Pamela quipped, getting right in his face. She had an expression of pure hatred on her usually kind face. "We are going in there."

"No we aren't!" Kletian countered. The two opponents were in each other's faces by now when Rush, with Alma in tow, came running down the steps with a massive, and much bigger than normal, Tiamat flying directly behind them. Rush pulled Alma to the floor as its claws raked by their heads.

"Do something!" he yelled, and Kletian and Delita grabbed their swords, and everyone else drew their weapons with the exception of Beowulf who already had his drawn. Delita stepped forward with a solemn look on his face.

"Now we may fight it."

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. I just had production week for the play (gack) and Thanksgiving and everything. But at least it's done, and it's done pretty well, even if it is shorter than the others. I wanted to do a little more with Rush, and Pamela will appear again, hopefully. And still more will be done with Kletian and Delita.


End file.
